Last minute penalty help Navy beat Police 27-24..

A spectacular last minute Penalty by ex Kingswood College full back Thilina Wijesinghe brought Navy SC to a close 27 (4Tries, 2 Conversions, 1 Penalty) to 24 (3Tries, 3 Conversion, 1 Penalty) win against Police SC in their Dialog ‘A’ Division inter club League Rugby match at the Navy grounds in Welisara yesterday. The Winners led 10 nil at half time.

Police dished out a superb second half rally where they came from behind 3-24 down to hold Navy to a 24 all but the last minute penalty cost them the match.

The match got off to a good start with both teams engaged in a battle for supremacy where Navy drew first blood in the 17th minute when their flanker Yoshitha Rajapaksha scored off a rolling maul, full back Thilina Wijesinghe missed the conversion. Navy went in to a 5 nil lead. In the 33rd minute Navy centre Lee Keegal touched down for an un converted try off a beautiful three quarter move and the score read 10-nil. This score stood at half time.

Soon after the break in the 56th minute, off a five metre scrum Navy number eight Nivanka Prasad crashed through for a superb under the post try. Wijesinghe made the conversion and Navy led 17-nil.

Within three minutes Mubarak put over a penalty to made the score 17-3.

In the 72 minute, Yoshitha Rajapaksha scored his second try off a quick five metre tap. Wijesinghe put over the conversion and Navy went in to a commendable 24-3 lead.

Police flanker Joel Perera barged through for a try off a ruck in the 82nd minute. Mubarak made the conversion. Score 24-10 in Navy’s favour.

Within seven minutes Police scored two back to back tries through flanker Perera (for his 2nd try) and number eight Radeesha Ranjan. Both were put over by Mubarak to make the score 24 all.

Navy sealed the match in style when their reliable place kicker Wijesinghe put over a fantastic 35 metre penalty to take the final score to a thrilling 27 points to 24 victory in the end.

Referee – Priyantha Gunarathna

Havies in hard fought 27-22 win over Army

Havelocks Sports Club were made to sweat till the very last minute by the fighting Sri Lanka Army Sports Club out fit, where Havies’ fly half Samantha Lakshan crash through to score a try in the last minute of play, saw them scored a hard fought 27 (3 Tries, 3 Conversions, 2 Penalties) to 22 ( 3 Tries, 2 Conversions, 1 Penalty) victory in their Dialog ‘A’ Division Inter Club League Rugby first round match played at Air Force grounds in Ratmalana yesterday.

Havelocks led 17-7 at lemons.

The winners could not found their act together in the entire match scoring only 3 tries through Janik Jayasuriya, Dushmantha Priyadarshana and Samantha Lakshan. conversion were done by full back Rimzie Jamaldeen who put over a penalty as well.

The gallant Army side came off neck to neck with the Havies out fit with some sizzling runs and Dazzling display to score three tries. Full back Gayan Salinda converted two tries and fired across a penalty.

Incidentally the rock solid Army side shocked the entire crowd present with their fierce tackling and were really unlucky to lose this game as they were leading 22-20 till the very last move of the game.