Gritty Airmen gun down Soldiers in bloody return
View(s):Air Force SC came out with a dramatic performance to gun down Army SC by 33-10 in their second round match of the Dialog League Rugby Championship played at Ratmalana yesterday.
The Airmen were on the offence from the word go and they led 19-5 at halftime and walked out winners after scoring from a total of five tries and four conversions, earning bonus points. The Soldiers, who were not so lucky as in the first round where they overcame the Airmen by a whisker, scored from two unconverted tries.
Making amendments to their 32-33 defeat in the first round at Racecourse on December 17, Air Force made the appropriate moves to revamp their mistakes occurred four weeks ago. The game was just four minutes old when forward Lahiru Kumara made the initial breakthrough with a splendid move to post a try. Centre Charitha Seneviratne made the conversion to put Air Force in the lead 7-0.
Not wasting much time centre Pabasara Hewage made use of the shaken momentum of the Soldiers to respond with a second try within minutes. Seneviratne made the conversion as Air Force rallied to a 14-0 lead. But the Soldiers regrouped to correct their approach as the game fluctuated without much fancy for the next 24 minutes. In the 29th minute Army winger Gayashan Dikkumbura came out of nowhere to score an unconverted try as they managed to cut down the deficit 5-14. But fullback Ishara Madushan made a surprise move in the 36th minute to put Air Force back in the game with an unconverted try. With that halftime was taken as Air Force led 19-5.
After the resumption utility player Supun Madusanka came to the act by landing a try in the 60th minute for Air Force. With Seneviratne’s conversion the Airmen expanded their lead to 26-5. But prop Sampath Rosa did a similar Dikkumbura move within a minute to give Army another breakthrough. With the try going unconverted they trailed 10-26 unknowing that it was their last scoring move of the game. Eight minutes before the close of the game flyhalf Gayantha Iddamalgoda braced a try after a collective move to which Seneviratne added extra points and Air Force ran away winners 33-10.