Mobitel Eagles secure first leg in Kandy

By Shamseer Jaleel 

reporting from Kandy

Mobitel Eagles once again showed their consistency in sevens rugby at Nittawela when they stamped their class in order to secure the first leg of the Sri Lanka Super Sevens 2017 beating Softlogic Warriors by 19 points (3 tries, 2 conversions) to 5 points (1 try) in the Cup finals at the Nittawela Rugby Stadium. 

In the schools segment Science College beat Trinity College in the Cup finals while St Peter’s and Dharmaraja were declared as the joint plate winners after the organizers failed to play extra time. Katugatota Antonians secured Bowl with a win over Joes while Rajans made sure that Isipathana went home without a single win in the two day event when they clinched the Shield trophy. 

In the franchise tournament which was worked off under wet conditions and semi darkness saw the defending champions, Mobitel Eagles leading 7/5 at the short breather. Mobitel who dished out champagne rugby under wet and cloudy Nittawela Stadium from the kick off onwards playing some open rugby despite difficult ball handling conditions. Lee Keegale, Roshan Weeraratne and Anurudha Wilwara stood out for the winners while for the losers Nishon Perera and Saliya Handapangoda were outstanding both in attack and defence as well.  Trinity who won all their group matches on day 1 continued their good form when they edged out the Petrites in the semi finals 22/19. In the other semi final Science beat Kingswood 33/7. But the Science players were omnipresent scoring two quick tries before the short breather against Trinity who ran out of ideas. In the second half both teams scored a try a piece. 

Overall the two days of matches saw the eight franchise teams plus equal number of school teams along with the women’s outfits dishing out quality rugby. In fact though big names from overseas was not seen but the quality of rugby was top class. 

Local lads for sure were catching the eye of National Sevens Coach Peter Woods (NZ) and Inthi Marrikar who were present both days. One of them who caught the eye of these two was the Thomian skipper, Naveen Heenakankanmge who was excellent in attack splitting many defenders more than one occasion. Even the school games too was high class dished out by the lads.

In the Women’s segment both Army and Navy displayed excellent ball handling capabilities which could be seen as a positive for Sri Lankan Rugby as Asian region. The same could not be said about the refereeing which was substandard and a good eye opener for Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) to bank more overseas referees for the second leg. Only one overseas referee from Singapore was on duty for this event. 

It was a great job by Sri Lanka Rugby, headed by Asanga Seneviratne and company, to bring the tournament to Kandy as the hills witness Sevens rugby after a decade. Sri Lanka rugby took prompt action in bringing the game forward by 30 minutes cutting short the entertainment due to heavy rain and semi darkness in the hills. Hats off to Minister Harin Fernando in taking a bold decision to bring the game to the hills. Also the future tournament is assured to be better post the learning in the first leg at Nittawela. 

Franchise segment 

Softlogic Warriors beat Cargills Gladiators 24/14, Access Kings beat Etisalat Panthers 19/14, Walkers CML Vipers beat KBSL Dragons 24/0, Mobitel Eagles beat EZY Wolves 7/5 

Shield final 

Etisalat Panthers beat Cargills Gladiators 17/0 

Bowl final 

EZY Wolves beat   KBSL Dragon 19/14 

Plate final 

Access Kings beat Walkers CML Vipers 31/7 

Cup final 

Mobitel Eagles beat Softlogic Warriors 19/5 

School 

Cup semi finals 

Trinity beat St Peter’s 22/19, Science beat Kingswood 33/7 

Cup final 

Science beat Trinity 19/5 

Shield/Bowl semi finals 

St. Joseph’s beat Dharmaraja 19/12, St Anthony’s beat Isipathana 22/12 

Plate final 

St. Peter’s drew with Kingswood 19/19 

Bowl final 

St Anthony’s beat St Joseph’s 20/14 

Shield final 

Dharmaraja beat Isipathana 15/12 

Women’s segment 

Sri Lanka Air Force beat CR & FC 51/0, Sri Lanka Navy beat Sri Lanka Air Force 36/7, Sri Lanka Navy beat CR & FC 57/0, Sri Lanka Air Force beat CR& FC 33/5 

Final 

Sri Lanka Army beat Sri Lanka Navy 24/0