Carlton Super Rugby 7s: Northern Gladiators win Second Leg but...:

Western Warriors emerge overall champions

By Sajeewa Jayakody

Northern Gladiators led by Fazil Marija emerged champions of the Second Leg of the Carlton Super Sevens with a 24 points (two goals, two tries) to 12 (one goal, one try) win over Western Warriors in the final played at Race Course grounds, Colombo 7 after trailing 5-12 at half time.

However the Western Warriors led by Yoshitha Rajapaksa emerged overall champions by virtue of their win in the First Leg played at Koggala last weekend.

They accumulated 47 points while Northern Gladiators finished second with 38 points while Southern Sharks led by Srinath Sooiryabandara finished third with 35 points.

Northern Gladiators opened scoring with an unconverted try by David Halaifania but the Western Warriors hit back with two fine tries by Emori Vaqavalagi and Joe Dunn with one try being converted to give them half time lead of 12 points.

Soon after resumption, Northern Gladiators equalized with a fine try by Niko Verekauta with Fazil Marija adding the extra points.

They went ahead further with an unconverted try by Sri Lanka player Pradeep Liyanage and just before the final whistle they made it 24-12 with a fine try by David Halaifania which was converted by Fazil Marija which gave them a grand 24-12 win to emerge champions of the Second Leg.

In the third place play off, Central Kings led by Rohitha Rajapaksa beat Uva Vipers by 33 points (four goals, one try) to 12 (one goal, one try).

David Halaifania of Northern Gladiators was the highest try scorer among foreigners while Anuruddha Wilwara of Central Kings was the highest try scorer among local players with 11 tries. They were given cash awards of 1,000 US Dollars each by Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage. Western Warriors, who emerged overall champions received a cash award of Rs 25 lakhs while Northern Gladiators , the overall runners-up received Rs 15 lakhs.

Srinath Sooriyabandara, the skipper of Southern Sharks was adjudged the Best local player overall while the best foreigner overall was David Halaifania.

In the schools tournament, Isipathana College, led by Omalka Gunaratne won the Cup Championship with a 15 points to nil win over Kingswood College Kandy with the tries being scored by Kushan Warusavithana (two) and Dilan Gallage (one).

The Plate Championship was won by Science College who beat St Joseph’s College by 19 points (two goals, one try) to 12 (one goal, one try) in the final.

Trinity College Kandy took the Bowl title with a 24 points (two goals, two tries) to 10 (two tries) win over Royal College Colombo.

Wesley College bagged the Shield title with a 14 points (two goals) to 5 (one try) win over CWW Kannangara Vidyalaya in the final.