| Sports |
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CR wins in second half rally |
| By Harry Jayachandra |
It was a tale of two halves at Longden Place yesterday as CR and FC beat CH and FC by 32 points (three goals, one try and two penalties) to 14 (two goals) in their Caltex League second round rugby match. In the process the hosts also annexed the Nizar Hadji Omar Memorial trophy given in honour of the legendary Sri Lankan ruggerite who died earlier this year.
The first half was riddled with unforced errors by both sides. There was no flow to the game with the referee Pradeep Fernando being the central figure.
CR and FC dominated the line outs with Ishan Noor and Dushanth Lewke out jumping their counterparts. CR and FC also had the edge in the scrums, rucks and mauls, but their recycling was slow. Youngster Srinath Sooriyabandara was once again exposed at half back. Though he scored a try in the second half, Sooriyabandara’s skills and pace at the base still needs a lot of improvement.
CH and FC scored first largely due to new recruit Royal’s Captain Naren Dhason who made a lovely break and sent Number Eight Bilal Hassan over the line Fullback Senthil Kumar converted. CR and FC hit back before the break with centre Ashan De Costa covering over 45 metres for a brilliant individual try.
Fullback Reza Mubarak put over two penalties to give CR and FC a slender 11 points to 7 lead at lemons.
The hosts went from first to third gear in the second half with wing three quarter Dinesh Kumara, Number Eight Dushanth Lewke and Sooriyabandara touching down. Stand off Dev Anand converted the three tries. CH and FC’s only joy in the second period came through centre Sajith Mallikarachchi who touched down and converted his own score.
Kandy hold the Cup
Defending Champions of the league trophy Kandy SC laid their hands on the trophy for yet another year with a 34 points (four tries and 2 goals) to 11 (one try and two penalties) victory over a gallant Air Force team at Ratmalana yesterday.Stand-off Fazil Marija had yet another fine outing for the visitors, scoring two tries and creating a number of others. Veteran wing three quarter Sanjeewa Jayasinghe showed that he still has both the pace and stamina with two touch downs. Centre Sameera Silva scored as did youngster Nalin Godigamuwa.
The hosts who fought the good fight so to write scored their points through Second rower Pradeep Kurukulasuriya and centre Charith Seneviratne who put over two penalties.
The champions were given a fright, but two tries in the last five minutes sealed the game for them.
Kandy led by 19 points to 5 at half time.
Referee; D. Nimal. |
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