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| Sunday, 26 June 2005 |
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Sri Lanka downs Singapore 34-17 by Lal Gunesekera Well done Sri Lanka! You deserved every bit of the battering you went through yesterday, but yet you came on top and that too by a margin of 17 points as you beat Singapore by 34 points (4 goals, 2 penalties) to 17 (1 goal, 2 tries) after leading 13-12 at half-time in the second-round Rugby World Cup (RWC) Asian qualifier at Longden Place. ow, Sri Lanka, are billed to play Kazakhastan in the third-round. Two weeks back, Sri Lanka beat Thailand 48-38 at Surunburi in the second-round, after their successes in the first-round over India 54-17 at Bombay and Thailand 35-14 at Longden Place last year. Singapore too had beaten Thailand 47-37 in their second-round game of the RWC. t was a courageous performance by the Lankans who had to battle the heavy Singapore forwards who had three overseas players among the "eight" and also the fly-half. They did very well with the third-row of Pavithra Fernando, Dushantha Lewke (No. 8) and Dilanka Wijesekera outstanding though the first 5 too had a terrific game. he outsides backed them at every stage. They managed to cross Singapore's line only once in the first session, but came the second, with the Lankans crossing it thrice. anjeewa Jayasinghe on the right-wing and Chamara Withanage on the left together with centre Pradeep Liyanage were at their best. I will be failing if I do not congratulate George Simpkin the coach and his assistant C. P. Abeygunawardene for this great win. Well done! T. A. Silva failed with a 30-metre penalty for Sri Lanka in the 11th minute, but put the homesters ahead two minutes later with a 35-metre penalty right. Then Singapore were awarded a penalty try converted by Mohamed Ismail for them to take the lead at 7-3. This was in the 19th minute and three minutes later, Singapore, went further ahead with Ismail playing at centre slipping through, but missing the conversion (Singapore 12-3). In the 32nd minute of play, Sri Lanka, reduced the lead through a super try by left-winger Withanage converted by Silva (Sri Lanka 10-12). Silva then put Sri Lanka ahead in the 37th minute with a 25-metre penalty to take lemons at 13-12. After the "turn around', in the very first minute, Sri Lanka's centre Pradeep Liyanage hit the gap inside Singapore "40" ending with Sanjeewa Jayasinghe touching down under the posts. Silva added the extra points (Sri Lanka 20-12). In the 9th minute, Singapore's centre Ismail scored his second try, but failed with the conversion (Singapore 17-20). Then, Sri Lanka's No. 8 Lewke broke away from a scrum 40-metres away, passed to scrum-half Amjad Buksh for centre Liyanage to put the finishing touches. Silva again obliged with the conversion (Sri Lanka 27-17). This was in the 13th minute. The Lankans put the nail in Singapore's coffin in the third minute of injury time with centre Liyanage slipping past three tackles over 22 metres to score under the posts. Silva added the extra points again (Sri Lanka 34-17). Japan's Takashi Harada refereed. Before the game, the two sides were introduced to Hemaka Amarasuriya
(Chairman of Singer Sri Lanka Limited) and Kishu Gomes (Managing Director of
Caltex Lubricants) by the SLRFU President, Priyantha Ekanayake. |
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