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by Lal Gunesekera

Sri Lanka not only bridged the deficit of six points over Kazakhastan, but went on to beat the quick tempered tourists in the 'Return' by 24 points (1 goal, 1 try, 3 penalties (1 drop goal) to 12 (1 goal, 1 try) after leading 18-5 at the breather in their Rugby World Cup (RWC) Asian Qualifier at Longden Place yesterday. Kazakhastan won the first game 25-19 at Almaty.

Sri Lanka now qualifies to meet either Arabian Gulf or China in the next round between March and May next year (2006) on a 'Home and Away' basis.

Earlier in the qualifying round, Sri Lanka beat both India (54-17) in Bombay and Thailand 35-14 at Longden Place last year (2004), while this year they beat Thailand (48-38) at Supunbari and Singapore (34-17) at Longden Place.

There were some ugly incidents on the field for over five minutes in the first session after Sri Lanka's right winger Sanjeewa Jayasinghe was brought down just inches from scoring.

Fists were seen thrown around in gay abandon and even feet were used. It ended with the Japanese referee showing the "red card" to Kazakhastan's winger Ivan Galushkin (No. 14). This was towards the end of the first session.

Sri Lanka did very well with the forwards 'holding' their big made and much heavier opponents. They also managed to get a fair share of possession and the outsides did attempt to run the ball. However, they could have done much better.

T. A. Silva after missing a 40-metre penalty in the eighth minute when the ball struck the left upright, made no mistake three minutes later with a 25-metre penalty (Sri Lanka 3-0). Then in the 20th minute, Kazakhastan went ahead with a punt by their fly-half from inside Sri Lanka '22' ended with their right winger touching down for an unconverted try (Kazakhastan 5-3).

Violence then erupted, with even the Police moving into control it. However in the 33rd minute, Sri Lanka's left-winger Pradeep Liyanage touched down near the corner flag after following up on a chip by fly-half Asanga Rodrigo. T. A. Silva failed with the conversion (Sri Lanka 8-5).

Four minutes later, T. A. Silva, put over a simple 20-metre penalty for Sri Lanka to lead 11-5 and in the third minute of injury time, Sri Lanka went further ahead with right winger Sanjeewa Jayasinghe going over near the corner flag. Silva made a superb conversion (Sri Lanka 18-5).

After the 'turn around', T. A. Silva put over a 30-metre penalty for Sri Lanka to lead 21-5, but missed another opportunity six minutes later from 35 metres.

However, he made certain of a 30-metre penalty in the 16th minute (Sri Lanka 24-5). Then came a try by a Kazakhastan forward off a melee which was converted (Kazakhastan 12-24).

Certain print media personnel found their reserved seats occupied by outsiders and were given some vacant seats outside the pavilion.

The SLRFU authorities also failed to provide them with the necessary team lists with numbers of the respective players. Hope these lapses won't occur in the future.

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