Central Kings crowned Carlton champions

By Shehan Daniel

Central Kings were crowned champions of the Carlton Super Sevens 2011 – doing one better than the first leg in Kandy – after they won the second leg of the tournament, defeating the Western Warriors 38-05 in the final which was worked off at the Royal College Sports Complex, Colombo on Sunday.

It took less than a minute for the Kings to get ahead, after Benjamin Botica punted the ball down-field following a scrum, with Zar Lawrence picking up and scoring the try.

Botica was back in the action in the 6th minute, when against the run of play, he picked up the ball and ran the length of the field to score by the left corner.

Mohammed Sheriff then  scored two tries shortly before the end of the half, shrugging off tackles to score unopposed.

The Warriors could not contain the prolific Botica, who added a fourth try in the 12th minute, but though they pulled one back in the 15th minute through American Mark Kempema Bokhoven, but that was soon cancelled out when Sheriff capitalized on the all-out attack of the Warriors, completed his hat-trick, to run in the ball over the line.  Meanwhile, the North Western Blacks beat Uva Vipers by 33-14 to win the third place play-off, while Northern Gladiators edged the Southern Sharks 19-14 to finish fifth.  Jaffna Challengers, led by Yoshitha Rajapaksa, finished eighth after they were beaten 26-12 by the Sabaragamuwa Stallions in their seventh place play-off match and the Eastern Eagles avoided the wooden spoon, beating the North Central Typhoons 24-21.

— Pix by Pradeep Dilruckshana