A remarkable performance by the Sailors had them outplaying the Kandy SC in the title decider at Welisara.
Kandy started furiously as Richard Dharmapala beat two Navy defenders and scored the first try in the corner on the 3rd minute of play. The lads from the hill capital never played such a furious first half in the entire season, but as it was the title decider they came out ferocious upfront. However, ultimately they were unable to match the opposition in the second half.
David Halaifonua has been insurmountable this season for Kandy and he scored the second try in the 10th minute to increase the lead. Gayan Weeraratne missed both the conversions and the score stagnated at 10-0. It was all Kandy for the first 10 minutes, but then came the Navy brigade storming from the 50m with Stefano’ s break and off load to Jason Dissanayake to score in the corner. It was well tackled by Kandy No.8 Samisoni and score remained unchanged.
After a great passage of play Chanaka Chandimal’s attempted a drop goal that went wide of the posts as the Sailors trailed 10 points down. However, a Kandy infringement in the ruck gave Nuwan Hettiarachi to get the first points on the board for Navy to relieve pressure. (Kandy 10 Navy 03)
Kandy lost the momentum half way through the first half when Stefano showed his class with pace, power and skills in a flying off load to his countryman Tupuailai who scored the first try to Navy and Hettiarachi’s conversion leveled the score to 10 all. (Kandy 10 Navy 10)
Navy holding-on to the ball led Roshan Weeraratne to get his first points from his boot as the lead took over 13-10 to Kandy. Before lemons Kandy’s indiscipline in the ruck created the opportunity to Hettiarachi who is the leading point scorer this season to kick the penalty. Although he missed it hitting the right post it was fortunate for the chaser Dinusha Chathuranga who picked the ball and dived to the touch line. Hettiarachi did not miss the conversion taking Navy in to the lead at the break.
Half Time (Kandy 13 Navy 17)
It was all Navy in the second half, as they pressed the pedal on the accelerator and held their nerve to enforce mistakes on Kandy and take the upper hand. Namal Rajapaksa come to the action this time going down taking two Kandy defenders; Kandy was awful in defense with no man supporting the counterpart which allowed supreme Stefano to pick the ball from the ruck and run straight under the post. Hettiarachchi did the damage slotting correctly. (Kandy 13 Navy 24)
Navy were in a commanding position by 60th minute; Kandy prop Kishore Jehan’s late tackle on Nuwan Hettiarachchi allowed an easy penalty to push the lead more than the 2 goal margin for Kandy. (Kandy 13 Navy 27)
On the final half there came the energy for the Kandy lads; playing in the opposite 22m territory Dinesh Sanjeewa could not hold on to the ball as he dropped it on the try line which denied the chance of Kandy coming back in to the game. Halaifonua took a quick penalty and ran 20m fending off 2 defenders unfortunately his off load was stolen by the Navy’s replacement center Jonny Bota who kicked the ball in to touch from the danger zone.
Another brilliant performance by Bilal Hassan who was strong on his tackle and took a quick turnover ball which was kicked high by Chandimal. Saliya Kumara was the culprit this time as he felt the pressure and dropped the high ball which allowed the Navy chasers to regain position and work on a great team try from Chandimal. Hettiarachi was precise adding points to his top points scorer tally he made the conversion (Kandy 13 Navy 34).
It was too little too late for Kandy as the replacement foreigner Salosi takes a quick tap in the 10m opposite territory to score a consolation try. Weeraratne could not get the two points.
Final Score (Kandy 18 Navy 34)
