A brilliant display by the sailors saw them registering a thumping 55-03 victory against CH&FC in their third week match of the Dialog Rugby League at Welisara.
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Navy’s charge started from the kick off itself. They did not allow CH&FC to settle down as they kept on hitting hard on the defence line. CH on the other hand was doing well to hold on but their defences were ultimately broken in the 12th minute when Richi Dharmapala kicked a loose ball deep inside CH territory and Chanka Chandimal followed the ball and jumped over it right on time to score their first try. Thilina Weerasinghe added the extras from the very acute angle. (Navy SC 07 – CH&FC 00)
Sailors went on a rampage afterwards with tries almost every five minutes. It was almost as if the match was on repeat. Fariz Alli kicks the restart , Navy forwards charge, ultimately end up over the try line and repeat. Their second try came in the 19th minute from a 5m scrum and it was Lee Keegal who spotted the gap and scored. Thilina added the extras with ease. (Navy SC 14 – CH&FC 00)
Few minutes later Thilina himself scored a try and converted to add 7 more points to his team. Matters worsened for the visitors as they were down to 14 men when Nizmi Nillar was sent to the naughty chair for a high tackle on Sajith Saranga. Sailors used the one-man advantage and scored two more tries through Lee Keegal and Dulanjana Wijesinghe within a space of 5 minutes to secure a bonus point from the match. (Navy SC 33 – CH&FC 00)
Navy’s front row and the second row was clinical in the first half which allowed them to hit hard at the CH defence. Their back row especially their No 8 Niwanka Prasad played a vital role throughout the match. The only time CH&FC got inside Navy territory they managed to force an error from Navy and added three points through a well taken penalty by Janith Chandimal.
Half Time: Navy SC 33 – CH&FC 03
The third quarter of the match went without any points being scored from either side. There wasn’t much of a change in ball possession but the sailors missed a lot of opportunities in this quarter which allowed CH&FC to stop the scoring. However, with some fresh legs on the field, Navy managed to break through the CH defence. It was Prasad Niwanka who took the honours for their sixth try of the match. Buddima Piyarathna broke through from the 40m line and ran inside the 22m and offloaded to Niwanka who shoved his way through the final defences to score. (Navy SC 38 – CH&FC 03)
3 minutes later 2nd half substitute Harsha Maduranga scored another try for the home side. Richi Dharmapala pulled off a brilliant dummy which opened some space for them to work their way over the line. Thilina added the extras. (Navy SC 45 – CH&FC 03)
Navy scored two more tries in the last ten minutes which made the score board look better for the home side and embarrassing for the visitors. The overall performance from Navy was below par due to some silly mistakes and the opportunities they missed throughout the match. CH&FC on the hand was never in the game. They could only get inside the Navy 22m once in the whole of 80 minutes and they never reached the 5m line throughout the match which goes to show how dominant Navy was.
Full Time: Navy SC 55 – CH&FC 03
ThePapare.com’s Player of the Match: Prasad Niwanka (Navy SC)
Point scorers for Navy: Thilina Weerasinghe 1T 5C, Lee Keegal 2T, Dulanjana Wijesinghe 1T, Prasad Niwanka 1T, Chanaka Chandimal 1T, Lahiru Herath 1T, Stephan Gregory 1T, Harsha Maduranga 1T
Point scorers for CH&FC: Janith Chandimal 1P
