MAS defend title at the Mercantile Rugby 7`s Tournament

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Third and final day of the Mercantile  rugby 7`s tournament was  rounded off at CR FC Grounds yesterday . Sunday was the business end to the tournament with the Cup, Bowl, Plate and Shield quarter final, semi-final and finals took place. The final day was halted with heavy rain and the tournament had to be held up for couple of hours till everything was back to normal.

The cup quarter final matches got under way in the morning where Mas `A` went through easy winners against Mas `B` with Anurudha Wilwara  touching down six unanswered tries. Dialog `A` won on the last move of the game against Nation Lanka Finance through a brilliant individual try from Mithun Hapugoda who danced his way through the opposite defense and ran  70 meters to touchdown a  wonderful try. John Keells Holdings ` A` went through easy winners against John Keels Holdings ` B` through Thilina Wijenayake` s spate of tries. Access beat Dialog `B` through a couple of tries from Srinath Sooriabandara.

At the Cup semi-finals Mas `A` were too strong against Dialog `A` where Anurudha Wilwara scored a hat-trick of tries for Mas `A` to booked themselves in the finals.  In the other semi-final Vishwamithra Jayasinghe was brilliant for Access who proved way too strong against John Keells Holdings `A`.

In the Shield final, Hirdramani ran riot over Millennium IT as they won easily by 43-0 while in the Bowl championship final, Kandurata Umbrella were too fast and too strong against CDB Bank and were victors by 17- 05.

The Plate final was between the star studded Nation Lanka Finance side against the underdogs  Dialog `B`. Chamara Dabare, Sandhun Herath scored two out five tries for Nation Lanka Finance who won comfortably by 33-0. In the penultimate game of the day, the tussle was between Dialog `A` against John Keells Holidings `A` for the third place playoff in the Cup category. Samith Dannanjaya scored two tries and Anuradha Herath and Moshin Faleel scored the remaining two tries for Dialog `A` to win by 22-12.

The final game of the day was between the defending champions  MAS `A` against Access for the Cup final. Both teams were heading to the final with good form and the Cup final was set to be played 10 minutes per half.  Saliya Kumara kicked off the game for MAS  and  it was a good start by them who had good possession of the ball at the Access half.  The good start was credited with a spectacular try from Anuradha Wilwara who ran 50 meters and beat two defenders to draw first blood for MAS. Wilwara was the man in form coming to the match having scored 9 tries in the last two games for MAS.  Saliya Kumara could not add the extras.  The Access star players Sooriyabandara, and Vishwamithra Jayasinghe were marked very well and had no impact in the final like they had in the previous matches. Nigel Ratwatte rounded off a beautifully worked team try for MAS.

As the second half started Access had possession of the ball but they were up against a defense which was solid in the back and gave no space for the likes of Sooriyabandara to create something for Access. On the other hand MAS when they had possession of the ball played smart rugby by taking their time and not gifting the ball to the opposition. With that MAS did not give any rhythm for Access to work the ball and Fazil Marija and company kept making strong tackles of Access. MAS ran out deserved winners in the final as they won 10-0. The damage was already done in the first half and it was evident that  Access had too much to do to come back into the game.

 

Final Scores

Shield Final : Hirdramani 41 vs Millenium It 00

Bowl Final :  Kandurata Umbrella 17 vs CDB Bank 05

Plate Final :Nation Lanka Finance 33 vs  Dialog `B` 00

 

Cup quarter- finals :

MAS `A` 34 vs MAS `B` 07

Nation Lanka  Finance : 12 vs Dialog `A` 14

Access 26 vs Dialog `B` 12

JKH `A` 25 vs JKH ` B` 05

 

Cup semi-finals :

MAS `A` 21 vs Dialog `A` 00

Access 19 vs JKH ` A` 05

 

Cup Final :

MAS `A` 10 vs Access 00

 

Special Awards

Player of the tournament and Mohan Daniel Memorial Challenge trophy and Motor Bike was awarded to Anuruddha Wilwara (MAS `A`)

Man of the final – Fazil Marija (MAS `A`)

Plate  -Captain Mattew George Memorial Challenge trophy for the most promising player to –  Banuka Udangamuwa (Dialog `B`)

Bowl – The most up and coming player Dialog Trophy to – K D K Dannanjaya (Kandurata Umbrella)

Shield – Best performance for Dialog trophy to – Kanishka Liyanage (Hidramani group)