The 2nd leg of the Air Force Commander’s Cup Friendly Rugby Tournament kicked off today (22 August 2021) at the Air Force Rugby Grounds at Ratmalana. The Sri Lanka Air Force and CH & FC came together after many months of planning to conduct a friendly encounter which was needed very much to revive the game of Rugby in Sri Lanka after a lapse of almost 2 years due to the pandemic. This tournament which was organized by the Sri Lanka Air Force was conducted under the guidance of the Minister of Youth & Sports and State Minister of Digital Technology and Enterprise Development, Hon. Namal Rajapaksa to be carried out as a pilot project to be the bench mark of reviving Rugby in the near future. The organizing was done on the directives of the Commander of the Air Force, Air Marshal Sudarshana Pathirana.

CH & FC scored a fine 29 points (5 tries, 2 conversions) against the Air Force Team who made 11 points (1 try, 1 penalty and 1 drop goal). The winners led 24 points to 11 at half time. The five tries for CH & FC were scored by Avishka Lee (Two Tries), Sudarshana Muthuthanthri (One), Omakla Gunaratne (One) and Prasath Madushanka (One) while the two conversions were fired across by Centre, Thenuka Nanayakkara.

For the losing Air Force Team, the solitary try was scored by Rumesh Ramadas while Ishara Madushan scored a drop goal as well. Charith Senevirathne scored the penalty for the Air Force. All scoring for the Air Force was done during the first half of the match and during the second half the only scoring was done by CH & FC with a single try.

With CH & FC winning both friendly encounters, the Air Force Commanders Cup was won by the visiting team. However, due to health concerns, an awards ceremony was not conducted today. All players who participated today and the support staff have been training and operating from within a bio bubble in order to prevent any health risks from occurring during the tournament. Today’s match which was conducted with no spectators was aired live on Supreme TV.