CR humiliate Navy
CR&FC humiliated Navy SC with a resounding 57-6 victory, scoring nine tries and securing a bonus point in the fifth week of the SLR Nippon Paint Club Rugby League match at Welisara yesterday. With the win they recorded their fifth straight win in five outings and remains unbeaten, as they indicated their intentions to defending champions Kandy SC, the only other team to remain unbeaten so far.
The Sailors came out strong, leading 6-0 until the 17th minute thanks to two penalties from fullback Steven Sanso. However, their lead was short-lived as centre Randy Silva swiftly responded with two tries in the 17th and 23rd minutes, propelling the Red Shirts to a 12-6 lead at halftime. After the break, the Red Shirts continued their dominance, scoring a flurry of tries and leaving the Sailors as mere spectators.
The pressure exerted by Navy in the first half disappeared after the initial quarter, and the gap widened as the visitors added seven more tries in the second half. Notably, all of CR’s tries resulted from highly coordinated three-quarter moves.
Barely two minutes after the resumption, No.8 Randul Senanayake touched down far left for an unconverted try as they expanded the lead to 17-6. Flanker Raveen de Silva braced one similar on the opposite end in the 50th minute to earn them the bonus point. But centre Manelka Ruberu, who put over the first try of the game, though missing the following two, made a neat conversion.
Playmaker and winger Iranga Ariyapala, who played a pivotal role in many of the breakthrough’s CR made, covered a good distance to touch down in the 61st minute, and with Ruberu failing to add extra points, the Red Shirts expanded their lead to 29-6.
Three minutes apart winger Rinesh Silva made an aggressive run to breach the Navy defence and with Ruberu’s conversion CR further expanded the lead to 36-6.
It was further one way traffic after the Sailors failed all their attempts to thwart the Red Shirts, who gradually paced up the game. Centre Samith Warnakulasuriya joined the try spree when he touched down in similar fashion as his team mates in the 72nd minute, and fly half Thenuka Nanayakkara, who took over the kicking duties from Ruberu put over the conversion from a difficult angle to make it 43-6.
On his debut season, winger Rinesh Silva matched his older brother Randy’s two-try tally by scoring another in the 75th minute, reaching the 50-point mark after Nanayakkara’s successful conversion. Just before the final whistle, CR sealed their dominance with a ninth try scored by flanker Shehan Kelaniyangoda, with Nanayakkara converting successfully for a final score of 57-6.