Sri Lanka’s rugby team came up with a well organized plan and crushed the heavily built Kazakhstan team by a convincing score-line of 45 points (7 tries, 5 conversions) to 7 points (a try, a conversion) in the final of the Asia Rugby Division I tournament encounter played at the Race Course ground in Colombo last night.
They stuck to their plan well especially in defence when they went low to bring down the heavier opponents who found it difficult to penetrate the defence.
The Sri Lankan back division was also up to the task in attack and with their cunning scything runs that caught Kazakhstan players off their guard to lead 31-0 at half time.
The second half saw three more tries being scored, two by Sri Lanka and one by Kazakhstan.
Sri Lanka scored in the first minute after the turn-around when Heshan Jansen put the finishing touches to a pass given to him by Tarinda Ratwatte when working a move.
Ratwatte put over the conversion to give Sri Lanka 38 points.
Kazakhstan scored their first try in the 56th minute when they moved closer to the Sri Lankan goal line and skipper Magamedrasul got past a defender and went over for a much needed try.
Nazhibayev made the conversion to give them the seven points.
Sri Lanka kept running well once again and in the 74th minute they found the opening through an open play and Kavindu de Costa spotted winger Sachith de Silva on the wing who raced past a defender and scored the final try.
Hirusha Nethmina made the conversion with ease.
Sri Lanka finished just five points short of the fifty point mark.
Sri Lanka piled on the points in the first half with their quick thinking back division and the robust tackling by the forwards who halted the bigger made Kazakhstan from making any dangerous advances.
Sri Lanka scored their first try in the first ten minutes of the game when they won a penalty and Tarinda Ratwatte spotted the vacant space in the in-goal area and chipped in. This saw the fleet footed Murshid Doray go past the defenders and touch down on the loose ball.
Sri Lanka scored again seven minutes later when the back division spotted the opponents moving forward and off another move Murshid Doray once again kicked ahead over the goal line and Adeesha Weerathunga fell on the ball for a try.
Ratwatte once again failed to convert.
Sri Lanka scored again just seven minutes later when an attempted kick ahead by a Kazakhstan player was charged down by Thenuka Nanayakkara and with the ball going over the goal line for Nanayakkara to fall over.
Sri Lanka continued to make scything runs and tackled effectively to find ways to win possession almost at will. They scored again six minutes later when they won a scrum and after working on short passes saw Tarinda Ratwatte receive the ball near the goal line and avoided a defender to go over between the posts.
The fifth try came about when Heshan Jansen kicked over the defenders and Dinal Ekanayake dashed over to fall on the ball.
With that try Sri Lanka took lemons with them leading on 31 points to nil.
