Navy SC emerged victorious for the first time this season when they narrowly beat Sri Lions SC by 41 points (6 tries, 4 conversions, 1 penalty) to 38 (6 tries, 4 conversions) in a thrilling rugby encounter at Race Course ground yesterday.
Both teams played constructive rugby with a lot of running penetrating each others defence time and again to make the game entertaining to watch also.
The deference was only three points in the final scores, but the scoring went either way in the whole game.
Early in the first half it was Navy who went ahead with their unimaginable penetrative running and energetic positioning that gave them the advantage.
However, it was Sri Lions who came back in the second half with four tries to take the lead at one point. They were eight points behind Navy’s score and suddenly Sri Lions were ahead to be 38 points to 34 in the 66th minute of the game.
It was then that Navy pepped up on their attacking moves and scored the match winning try in the 75th minute through Chirantha Kaluarachchi off a short tap. Thilina Weerasinghe made the conversion that gave Navy 3 point lead in the end.
Sri Lions started scoring in the 46th minute of the second half through a try by Prasad Madusanka followed by tries by Dilshan Madushanka and Pranith Silva.
The first half was dominated by Navy SC who did most of the scoring. They scored five tries through their penetrative running backs.
Dimuth Perera, Hashan Madumadawa, Saviru Nimsika and Apoorva Wijesinghe touched down for the Sailors.
Sri Lions scored their tries through Nizran Mohamed three in the first half.
Aruna Shantha refereed
