Access and Dialog ‘A’ kick off the 46th Mercantile 7’s with wins

The 46th Mercantile 7’s rugby tournament kicked off in style at the CR & FC grounds in Colombo as 17 games were played on day 1 (15th July) of the tournament.

9 games under the shield segment, 6 games under the bowl segment and 2 games in the cup segment rounded off 17 games on day one.

Pan Asia Bank began the Shield segment as they beat Attune by 24 points as they held Attune to score-less in game one. Virtusa and Amana Bank played a 7-all draw as the games moved on to the Bowl segment games.

John Keells Holdings ‘B’ (JKH) saw off a resilient Kandurata ‘A’ in the first Bowl segment game. Kanrich Finance, Dialog ‘B’ and Sampath Bank shrugged off Nation Trust Bank (NTB) CDB Blues and Sri Lanka Insurance as the first round of Bowl segment games drew to a close.

Moving back to the Shield Segment games Brandix beat Expo Lanka holding them scoreless as Brandix scored 12 points. Commercial Credit held NDB scoreless as they lost 27 nil to Commercial Credit.

Janashakthi beat Gestetner 17 – 05 as Hidramani scored the highest points on the day as they scored 35 and held HDPL score-less. Millennium IT played a close game with Peoples Leasing and came up winners as Millennium IT held to a 3 point win. (Millennium IT 15-12 Peoples Leasing)

Kandurata ‘B’ held Ceylon Tobacco to a try-less  win by 12 as Attune registered their first win of the tournament beating Commercial Bank 10- nil as the Shield segment games drew to a close on day 1.

 Photo Album – 46th Mercantile Rugby 7’s 2016 – Day 1 

The final two Bowl games of the day saw JKH ‘B’ go down to a spirited CDB Reds team as CDB held on to win 19-12. The final Bowl game was a tight  wrestle as Dialog ‘B’ were held by HSBC nil-all to record the second draw of the day.

Cup Segment:

The first cup segment game saw Access, by far the finest team of the tournament beat 12 times winner JKH ‘A’ to win by 14 points to nil. The first try of the cup segment was scored by Danush Dayan as he reacted first as he took a quick tap and went under the post for Access as they converted to gain the extra 2 points. (Access 7-0 JKH ‘A’)

Richard Dharmapala rounded -off an impressive performance by Access as he made a trademark run down the far side touchline to score beside post and converted to wrap up the game in favor of Access. (Access 14-0 JKH ‘A’)

Day one of the 46th Mercantile rugby 7’s drew to a close as Dialog ‘A’ took on a relatively young and inexperienced Nation Lanka outfit.

Participating following an absence of a year Nation Lanka showed a bit of rustiness. The first try of the game came as Mithun Hapugoda took a quick tap and stepped his way down the touchline to score for a star studded Dialog outfit. Niroshan Fernando failed to convert as the score remained at 5 points in favor of Dialog. (Dialog 5-0 Nation Lanka)

Nation Lanka did not let the occasion get to them as they struck straight back off the kick as Winger Janith Chanaka made a distinctive run down the near touch line as he stepped the onrushing defender and drew the last man and passed as he assisted Gayantha Iddamalgoda to gain the lead in the game as Shumri Burah converted the try. (Dialog05-07 Nation Lanka)

A well contested kick off by Sanjula Fernando of Nation Lanka saw referee Dinka penalize and sin bin as he had a different view of it. Dialog made the man advantage count as Niroshan Fernando scored and converted to regain the lead in the game. (Dialog 12-7 Nation Lanka)

Buddhima Priyarathna stepped his was down the touch line as he bamboozled the Nation Lanka defense to draw the curtain on day one of the 46th Mercantile 7’s rugby tournament.

Day two of the tournament will commence today at 8.30am as 40 matches are scheduled to be played.

Score Summary: