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.

Things got even worse for the hosts when Sharo Fernando was sent to the sin-bin in the 20th minute and later in the second half he was sent off for throwing punches at Kandy players. The players from both sides were involved in heated verbal exchanges and pushes right throughout the match resulting in four Kandy players namely, Heshan Kalhara, Damith Dissanayake, Buwaneka Udangamuwa and Thilina Wijesinghe receiving yellow cards.
Despite being able to draw first blood, the Cops could only manage two tries; that too scored deep into the second half with number eight, Bilal Hasan and scrum half Sudam Parinda getting into the score sheet once again.
Kandy wing three quarter Vishwamithra Jayasinghe who came off the bench in the second half added more misery on the struggling Policemen as he sprinted past quite a few Police defenders demonstrating his pace and proving the national selectors wrong when they snubbed him for the Sri Lanka Sevens squad a weeks ago.

Arshad Jamaldeen who was given the opportunity to play at fly half justified the decision with a strong performance touching down once in the first half and making six conversions out of the seven tries in addition to the three points added through a penalty.
Flankers Suhiru Anthony and Sashika Jayawardene were the other scorers for the winners.
Meanwhile, Havelock Sports Club defeated Navy Sports Club 16-13 at Welisara to remain unbeaten in the league competition while Army registered a 37-25 victory over Air Force at Diyagama.