Navy continue to head Dialog league rugby points table

Thushan JAYASURIYA

Navy Sports Club, continued to head the points table of the Dialog ‘A'division league rugby tournament despite their 20 – 22 defeat in the hands of Havelocks Sports Club on Sunday . The Sailors who have played one match more than the Park Club have obtained 35.50 points in seven outings while the unbeaten Havelocks lie in second place with 34.50 points in six matches. Defending champions Kandy Sports Club, who too have won all their six matches are in third position with 33. 50 points.

A superb second half rally by Havelock Sports Club helped them to overcome Navy SC by 22 – 20 at Havelock Park on Sunday after trailing 0 – 20 at the breather. Navy's power packed forwards superbly lead by the tireless flanker Yoshitha Rajapaksa ably supported by Sathya Ranatunga, Namal Rajapaksa, Bilal Hassan, Kalana Amarasinghe and strongly built Sumedha Malewana dominated in the loose in the first half to pile up 20 points through tries by Ratu Taniela and C.Setefano with Dev Anand dropping a peach of a goal from 20 metres out and a penalty by Ratu Taniela.

But the Park Club , with their superior fitness , came back storming in the second session with the three quarters giving a dazzling display with fly half Niroshan Fernando feeding his threes at every opportunity which saw centres P.Sopo, Lee Keegel and the two dashing wingers Peterite and Sri Lanka player Sandun Herath and Royalist and Sri Lanka Youth player Chamara Dabare testing the Navy defence to the hilt with their daring runs ably supported by attacking fullback Mohamed Sheriff which saw the Park Club crossing the Sailors defence on four occassions with winger Sandun Herath, fullback Mohamed Sheriff , prop Dushmantha Priyadarshana and centre Lee Keegel scoring the tries with centre P.Sopo adding the extra points to the last try by Keegel to give the Park Club a glorious win much to the joy of their jubilant supporters .

Kandy rout CR

Kandy Sports Club kept their hopes of retaining the ‘A’ division league title for the 12th successive year with a smashing 47 – 7 win over CR and FC.Kandy's three quarters gave a dazzling display which saw them crossing the CR goal line on eight occasssions.Scrum half Roshan Weeraratne scored two tries , while fly half Fazim Marija , prop Meenea Katukio, centre Etu Wali Lohio, centre Oshan Perera,fly half Tharindu Chanaka, and young Wingers Dharshana Etipola and Dhanushka Dayan scoring tries . Skipper Lasintha de Costa's try after 90 metre dash was the only consolation for the red shirts.

This was the biggest defeat for the Longden Place Club since 1992, when Kandy SC thrashed CR by 53 points to 9 at Nittawela helped by a hat-trick of tries by strongly built Fijian Centre Bati Penaia.

This was CR's fourth successive defeat for the season having earlier lost to Havelocks (7 – 38), Police (28 – 36) and Navy (15 – 58) and are likely to be relegated to the Plate Championship in the second round.

The red shirts are relying too much on the two foreign player Luke Muggeridge and Sabir Slaimankhel due to the lack of talented local players having lost the services of last year's skipper, Dushan Lewke(Kandy SC) , Reza Mubarak(Navy), Henry Terrence, Mihamed Sheriff, Niroshan Fernando and Former skipper Ashen Karthelis(Havelocks), Srinath Sooriyabandara, Vishwamithra Jayasinghe, Sharo Fernando, Hasitha Perera and Nigel Ratwatte (Up Country Lions).

Up Country Lions registered their third win for the season with a smashing 50 – 13 win over the lowly placed Air Force while the vastly improved Army scored a smashing 36 – 13 win over the bottom of the table CH and FC which propelled the soldiers into the fourth place in the table.