Champions of Western Province Men’s Team
The Rugby segment of the 42nd National Sports Festival concluded today with Western Province Men’s team and Southern Province Women’s team emerging champions at the Race Course international stadium.
The tournament started off yesterday with 9 men’s teams and 3 women’s teams. However, after the group stage matches in the men’s category, Western Province and Central Province came into the finals. Central province started off with a try in the 2nd minute of play. Thivanka Bandara went over the line with ease after just working the ball through the middle of the pitch. Colombo fought back hard and Central played the game into their opponent’s hand when Sudaraka Dikkumburu received a yellow card for a late tackle.
Minutes before the half time, Colombo used the one-man advantage to score a goal and get the lead back. It was Pium Jayasinghe who went over the line and the conversion was successful by Godfrey White.
Colombo continued to dominate the early stages of the second half as Amith Madusanka intercepted a loose pass and ran all the way to score their second try. Central province bounced back with converted try few minutes later when Thivanka Bandara stepped up the gas to run around the defense and score his second try. It was successfully converted by Kosala Perera to tie the scores.
In the dying minutes of the match players got a bit aggressive and the referee had to give three yellow cards within one minute. Iranga Ariyapala and Rumesh Premathilaka were sin binned from Central Province while Lasindu Karunathilaka was sent to the naughty chair from Western Province. Western Province with the one-man advantage managed to score the winning try through Shamri Burah in the very last minute to secure the win by 17 points to 12.
In the women’s category, Southern Province took on Sabaragamu Province for the championship title. It was a hard fought match right until the very end. At half time, Southern led 12-0 with tries from Dulani Palikkondage and Dasuni Thommadura. The girls from Sabaragamu Province fought hard to catch up and they almost snatched the victory but the conversion of their second try was missed. At full time scores stood at 12 all. The match went into extra time and after an intense battle, Southern managed to find the try line through Dulani which helped them to steal the victory 17 points to 12.
In the men’s category, Southern Province came third after beating Sabaragamu Province 10 points to 7. In the women’s category it was Western Province who came third. Western Provinces skipper Ramesh Fernando was adjudged Player of the Tournament while Dulani Palikkondage got the same award in the women’s category.
