Sailors sink Soldiers at Reid Avenue
In a rather lop sided affair the defending champs Navy pummelled the day lights out of the Army to register a handsome 48 points (5 goals, 2 tries, 1 penalty) to 3 ( 1 penalty) win in their first round encounter of the Dialog sponsored ‘A’ Division inter club game played at the Race Course grounds.
A Sailor makes an off-load before he is brought down by Army skipper Rohitha Rajapaksa - Pic by Ranjith Perera
Navy was led by Yoshitha Rajapaksa while the Army was led by his younger brother Rohitha. However there was no brotherly love when the game commenced as Navy scored at almost every turn to plant 5 tries in the first half with Reza Mubarak converting four of them and also putting over a penalty. The Soldiers only consolation score came of the boot of Prince Chamara who put over a penalty before Navy took a runaway 36/3 lead at the half way mark. Skipper Yoshitha, Navari Eramasi (2), Joeli Lutuimalgi and DInusha Chathuranga scored with Reza Mubarak doing the kicking honours. There was no further love lost between the brothers when mid-way in the second half Yoshitha was sent into the ‘sin bin’ by Kiwi referee Paul Mc Kay for an offside tackle on his younger sibling Rohitha.
The second half in spite of being rather quiet saw the Sailors cross the Soldiers line on two more occasions when Kiwi Dean Warren crossed Army’s line in a scathing run and then just prior to the long whistle Vishwamithra Jayasinghe who had been threatening his opposing winger throughout the game sneaked in to run almost 35 yards to touch down. Muabrak converted one of those tries before referee blew full time.
Army’s dependence on Pio Tuwai and Sainivalari Ramuwei did not pay off for them as both were nothing but a shadow of the past during play as the Sailors marked them beautifully throughout the game. With their foreigners in the dock the local lads of the Army had no say as for the Navy they played well in cohesion and teamed up well as one unit.