Merciless Soldiers gun down the Sailors by the sea
Army staged a late second half rally to down Navy by 30 points to 17 in their Dialog Inter-Club rugby game at Welisara yesterday.
Navy showed glimpses of a great fight back in the second half but it came to an end when Army centre Madusha Chandrasekera intercepted a pass and scored under the posts enabling Gayan Chaminda to convert and take their final tally to 30 while Navy lagged behind at 17 at the end.
Army’s points were made up of 3 tries, 3 conversions and 3 penalties while Navy’s points came up on the board through 2 tries, 2 conversions and a penalty.
With this defeat Navy has no chance of being amongst the top teams in the league, while the Army guns boomed defiantly to be in the running amongst the top four teams.
Army scored first when centre Ashen Bandara ran through to score by the posts and Gayan Salinda was on target with the conversion. Navy scored next through Kosala Tissera and Thilina Weerasinghe converted to make it 7 all. Army took the lead with a Salinda Gayan penalty. Army kept on mounting the score with a try by Upali Abeyratne and Salinda Gayan converted. Army 17 Navy 10. Army increased the lead to 20-7 through a Salinda Gayan penalty. Navy fought back through a penalty from Tilina Weerasinghe. Army led 20-10 at the breather.
Navy held back several sporadic raids by the Soldiers with their hard tackling and came back fighting through a Thilanga Pushpakumara try. Tilina Weerasinghe converted. Army 20 Navy 17.
Army scored next when Gayan Chaminda put over a penalty. Army 23 Navy 17. Navy were seen fighting tooth and nail next and kept the Soldiers at bay until Madusha Chandrasekera scored the try enabling Gayan Chaminda to score to take their final tally to 30 and Navy 17. Referee – Rohan Fernando