Air Force stuns Army 27-20

By Harsha Amarasinghe

Air Force Sports Club pulled off another stunning win as they defeated Army Sports Club in the plate segment of the Nippon Paint League Tournament match 27 (3 tries, 1-conversions, 1-penalty try, 1-penalty) to 20 (3-tries, 1-conversion, 1-penalty) at Havelock Ground today.

Scrum half Nuwan Perera got the Airmen off to a brilliant start as he booted over penalty to take a lead in the 5th minute. But Army came back strongly almost immediately through a penalty from Chathuranga Perera to level scores on 3-3.

In the 20th minute Army took the lead through Lasantha Kumara who scored an unconverted try to make the score 8-3.

Their lead didn't last long as Air Force struck back six minutes later with their forwards getting their act together sending hooker Parakrama Ratnayake over for a try which was converted by Nuwan Perera to lead 10-8.

Senior campaigner Ratnayake touched down again towards the end of first half as they took a half time lead of 15-8.

Army had a cracking start to the second half as they regained the lead inside seven minutes into the second half kickoff coursey of tries from Mohamed Akram and Dilshan Kodagoda with Chathuranga Perera converting the latter to make it 20-15.

The turning point of the match was the yellow card for Army's Nalan Premarathe in the 52nd minute as Air Force took full advantage to send Ratnayake over for his hat trick and later getting a penalty try to win the match 27-20.