Sailors set to cruise along against Airmen
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CR&FC edged out the Sailors last weekend, but today the Airmen will have to fight hard to earn a win at Welisara
The Navy and the Air Force who meet at Welisara today have, collectively, a single win in ten games. A little surprisingly, that win was achieved by the Airmen at the expense of the Police.
Both Navy and Air Force may be feeding off the crumbs that fall from the table. Air Force’s performance in round two has been better than that of their opponents. A 22-29 loss to the powerful CH outfit must surely have pleased the lads from Ratmalana. Taking Kandy SC as the yard-stick, the Airmen conceded 52 points to them, while the Navy gave away 63. Both games were at Nittawela.
Digging further into the past, the Air Force lost to the Navy 25-43 in the first round. So, this could be pay-back time for them.
The Airmen are nippy and like to attack. Fly half Gayantha Iddamalgoda exemplifies their style of play. A vital cog in the Air Force wheel, Iddamalgoda, though slight in stature, stands tall when the going gets tough.
Jero Dhananjaya, Soorya Krishan, Nuwan Perera and Rumesh Ramadas have played their parts. Lock Thilina Bandara has used his height to good effect. He is also tireless in the loose.
Tilina Weerasinghe’s team has been there, or thereabouts, on three occasions in the second round. The Army beat them by two points, the CH by three and a few days back, the CR won 23-20. In short, the Navy have not been able to make their own luck.
The outsides – fly half Mohamed Absal, Centres Mushin Faleel and Harsha Maduranga and the speedy Buddima Piyaratne must find ways of putting the points on the board. Scrum half Richie Dharmapala is another potential asset to the Sailors. Skipper Weerasinghe seems to have got over that bad patch.
Charith Silva has been Navy’s most effective (and productive) forward. One-man-shows are not the norm now. So the rest-of the Navy forwards will have to rally round.
Having lost five games on the trot, Navy’s confidence must have sagged. They’ve got to realize that they are playing one of the lowliest teams in the league. If the mind-set is good, Navy could pull this off and have the champagne corks popping.