Second leg of Carlton Rugby Sevens:

Central Kings and Northern Gladiators to the fore

S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen, Kandy Sports Cor. at Nawalapitiya

Central Kings (Pool ‘A’) and Northern Gladiators (Pool ‘B’ took the top spots with unbeaten records in the second leg of Carlton Rugby Sevens which commenced at the Jayattilleke Sports Complex, Nawalapitiya yesterday. The tournament resumes today at 10 a.m.

The following is the pool standing at the end of yesterday’s matches.

Pool ‘A’ Central Kings 16 points, 2. Southern Sharks 13 points, 3. Western Warriors 10 points, 4. Eastern Eagles 7 points, 5. Sabaragamuwa Stallions 4 points.

Pool ‘B’ Northern Gladiators 16 points, 2. North Western Blacks 13 points, 3. Uva Vipers 8 points, 4. Jaffna Challengers 8 points, 5. North Central Typhoons 4 points.

Southern Sharks who led the race at the end of the first leg are trailing behind Central Kings in Pool ‘A’ while Northern Gladiators who finished third last week are on top of Pool ‘B’ with a lead of 3 points over Western Warriors who have scored 13 points.

The biggest upset of the day was when North Western Blacks trounced North Central Typhoons by the huge margin of 37 points (1 goal, 6 tries) to nil after leading 20-0 at lemons.

It must be recalled that last week North Central Typhoons finished second in the overall standing losing just one match.

Try scores for North Western Blacks were Lavang Perera (2), Nuwan Hettiarachchi (1), Niroshan Fernando (1), Mohamed Sherif (1) and Gayan Weeraratne (1).

North Central Typhoons suffered another defeat in the last match of the day when they lost to Jaffna Challengers by 15 points (3 tries) to 12 (1 goal, 1 try) after the winners led 10-7 at lemons. Try scores for Jaffna Challengers were Saliya Kumara (2) and Indika Udyakumara (1). For North Central Typhoons, the two tries were scored by Iranga Ariyapala and Shanaka Kumara.

Northern Gladiators almost surrendered their unbeaten record on the penultimate match of the day before beating North Western Blacks by 18 points (2 goals, 1 try) to 12 (1 goal, 1 try) after leading 12-0 at the breather.

After trailing behind at lemon Western Warriors fought back to level the scores. It was only a 75 metre dash by Mithun Hapugoda which brought the Gladiators the win. The other two tries were scored by Wishwamithra Jayasinghe. For North Western Blacks Gayan Weerarathna and Lavanga Perera scored a try each.

The results of matches played yesterday were Central Kings beat Southern Sharks 15-10, Western Warriors beat Eastern Eagles 10-0, North Western Blacks beat North Central Typhoon 37-0. Northern Gladiators beat Uva Vipers 15-7, Central Kings beat Sabaragamuwa Stallion 26-0, Southern Sharks beat Western Warriors 26-5, North Western Blacks beat Jaffna Challengers 29-0, Uva Vipers beat North Central Typhoons 28-12, Eastern Eagles beat Sabaragamuwa Stallions 14-13, Central Kings beat Western Warriors 20-19, Northern Gladiators beat Jaffna Challengers 29-5, North Western Warriors beat Uva Vipers 24-7. Southern Sharks beat Eastern Eagles 14-12, Western Warriors beat Sabaragamuwa Stallions 29-5, Northern Gladiators beat North Central Typhoons 17-0, Uva Vipers drew with Jaffna Challengers 26 all, Central Kings beat Eagles 22-15, Southern Sharks beat Sabaragamuwa Stallion 12-5, Northern Gladiators beat North Western Eagles 19-12, Jaffan Challengers beat North Central Typhoons 15-12.