Navy eye top two finish

Navy Sports Club squad

By Harsha Amarasinghe and Sandun Kodithuwakku

Navy Sports Club, who returned to winning ways against Army Sports Club with a 41-30 victory last week, will look to finish the inter club league rugby tournament in the top two.

The Sailors are currently sitting in fourth place having won two out of the five games they played, but the head coach Saliya Kumara is quietly confident of his team finishing in the top two.

“We played a really good game against Army Sports Club. We scored a lot of points and got the bonus point as well which is a huge confidence booster for the team and I am sure players will take the momentum forward and make most of it by winning our remaining games. Our target was to finish inside the top two and if we can grab bonus point wins, we’d be able to do that,” Navy head coach Kumara told Daily Mirror.

Navy forwards have been traditionally very strong which used to be a feature of their style of play but, Saliya has added new dimensions to Navy rugby.

“If we talk about Navy in terms of territory, I think they are much more confident now that they would even make plays from their own try line. I think it goes on to show that the players are very confident and it’s a good sign as well because that will create doubts in the opponents mind as to how they can manage the attacks,” the former Kandy Sports Club legend said.
Saliya himself being a former national back division player lauded his attacking players and pointed out the kicking advantage he has in the squad.

“Our backs have been exceptional and we saw it in the Army game. We have big advantage when it comes to kicking with three brilliant kickers in the starting XV in Thilina Weerasinghe, Dinesh de Silva and Samuel Maduwantha,” Saliya explained.

Navy are captained by former St. Joseph’s prop Stephan Gregory while the squad is consisted of some excellent forwards in the shape of Adeesha Weeratunga, Charith Silva, Nirosh Perera and Gihan Perera.Over the years Navy used to be a team that relies up on their forwards heavily but with Saliya Kumara coming in as the head coach, they seem to have changed their tactics completely and looks a team that is hungry for wins.