Nation Lanka Finance ‘A’ emerged Champions after creating an upset by beating MAS ‘A’ 14-10 in the Cup segment of the 42nd Dialog Mercantile Rugby 7’s tournament that was held at the CR&FC from the 23rd-25th November 2012.
After two days of gruelling rugby in the group stages, the Dialog Mercantile Rugby 7s tournament headed towards the third and final day. The day’s proceedings began very early, as a few matches which were to be played on Saturday, had to be shifted due to the prevalent weather conditions that deemed unfavourable for play.
With the group stages done and dusted, eight teams from each segment moved on into the knockout rounds which began from the quarterfinal stage.
Shield – Commercial Credit
The first quarterfinal was between Citizen Development Bank and C.L. Synergy where the former eased through to score 20 points against the 07 points Synergy managed through a solitary converted try. Oasis Marketing, Ceylon Tobacco and Commercial Credit all made their way through to the Semi Finals with convincing victories. Oasis Marketing was the only team to not win by over a margin of ten points in the Quarterfinals as the Hirdramani group proved to be stiff competition at that stage.
In the semi finals, Citizen Development Bank came away as worthy winners as they managed to rout a hapless Ceylon Tobacco outfit who seemed to have worn themselves out. Obviously, three days of rugby is always very tough to cope up with especially with the scorching heat in the afternoon sessions.
The game between Commercial Credit and Oasis Marketing proved to be a tight one with the points being levelled at half time. But Commercial Credit pushed themselves really hard to come back strong and score four more tries in the second half, securing a safe passage to the finals.
A tight game was on the cards, as we embarked on the Shield Finals between Commercial Credit and Citizen Development Bank. Both teams had a nervous start, as there were a few ‘scrappy’ passages of play with neither side capitalizing. However, Commercial Credit stormed through to record a 17-10 victory against Citizen Development Bank claiming the first silverware that was on offer last evening.
Bowl – JKH ‘B’
Commercial Leasing fell short, as Dialog ‘B’ ran away with a 21-14 victory in the first quarterfinal in this segment. Entrust and HSBC had tight games against their opponents, Sri Lanka Insurance and Nation Lanka Finance ‘B’ respectively. However, both these teams came on top after their respective quarterfinal encounters. John Keels Holdings ‘B’ possessing a very young set of players ran riot against Ceylon Venture to beat them 35-12.
In the semi finals, Dialog ‘B’ routed a hapless HSBC outfit that seemed to have burnt out as the failed to keep with the pace of the Dialog attackers. The lack of pace also meant that offensively they were not able to make any daunting runs, as the watchful JKH ‘B’ defence managed to cut off any attempt to keep the score at 22-00 in favour of Dialog.
In the second semi final in the Bowl segment, JKH came off as worthy winners with a valiant display against Entrust. JKH managed to proceed to the finals with this brilliant 28-14 victory over Entrust, who seemed to have dropped their levels of intensity as the tournament progressed.
In the finals, Dialog ‘B’ managed to open the scoring early on, but from then onwards it was JKH who created most of the pressure. At half time, the speedy lads from JKH were full of confidence after scoring at the end of the half, as the momentum seemed to have shifted. As the second half progressed, JKH ran through the Dialog defence on many occasions to emerge victorious in the Bowl segment of this year’s tournament.
Plate – Dialog ‘A’
The losers of the Cup Quarterfinals were shifted to the Plate, as Dialog ‘A’ managed to trounce a Sampath Bank outfit that seemed to be quite out of sorts in comparison to the performance they displayed yesterday against MAS. Dialog went on to score six converted tries to one solitary try by Sampath therefore recording an easy 42-05 win.
JKH ‘A’ also managed to fend off their opponents with ease, as they went on to beat Seylan Bank with a 33-05 scoreline setting up a mouth watering clash against Dialog ‘A’ in the finals.
The Plate finals which seemed like a rematch of the Bowl Finals with the same companies being involved definitely had a lot at stake. Dialog ‘A’ scored first with a brilliant effort through the middle. However, the battle became intense in the middle. JKH only managed to reply once to this strong Dialog outfit who went on to become Plate Champions with a 12-07 margin.
Cup-Nation Lanka Finance’A’
Defending Champions MAS ‘A’ took on Access in the first Cup semi final. Both teams had relatively easy quarterfinal encounters against Dialog ‘A’ and Sampath respectively. The defending Champions however proved to be too strong even though MAS trailed at half time. The second half saw the likes of Mohamed Sheriff, Saliya Kumara, Ashan De Costa and co. stepping in with their experience to see the game to bed.
In the other semi final, Nation Lanka Finance had a smooth run against VIS Broadcasting. Nation Lanka had a tough game against Seylan in the quarterfinals, however in this game they managed to strangle VIS Broadcasting with ease securing safe passage to the finals.
Before the final, VIS Broadcasting went on to secure third place beating Access with ease as they seemed to have got their focus back a little too late.
Two of the favourites to win this Cup segment had got themselves through to the final as they were only a step away from clinching victory in this tournament. MAS were the first to put the points on the board with some sheer space and brilliance.
However, Nation Lanka gradually steered themselves to the lead as they continued to pile more pressure on the defending champions. Chamara Dabare especially seemed to be in really good form with a few daunting runs through the middle, obviously helping Nation Lanka Finance.
The defending champions failed to grab the opportunities as Nation Lanka slowly grew in confidence, and ran away with the title. There were a few great moments for MAS to equalize, but all those chances went astray much to the delight of the Nation Lanka Finance group.
Nation Lanka possessing the likes of Dabare, Lee Kegel, Perera twins Oshan and Lavanga, Heshan Kalhara, Shenal Dias managed to stamp authority in the final eventually recording a 14-10 victory over MAS.
Chamara Dabare was adjudged the man of the tournament for his brilliant display of speed and agility right through the tournament.
