Havelocks survive Army scare to enter semi-finals
Havelocks, last year’s League Champions, weathered a stormy rally and finally managed to register a 29-14 win over a rugged Army outfit in a quarter-final game of the Dialog knock-out rugby championships under floodlights at the Race Course Rugby grounds yesterday. Havelocks gained their points through 4 tries and three conversions while Army’s points were made up of 2 tries and 2 conversions. Havelocks will now meet Kandy SC in the semi-finals where a rousing game is expected on March 5.
A Havelocks player tries to barge through an Army defender. Pic by Ranjith Perera
Surprisingly Army took a 7-0 lead within the first five minutes through a storming try by Irushi Adhikaran which was converted. Havelocks cut down the Army lead to 3-7 with the conversion coming off the boot of their Fijii import Maika Ugaqaqa.
Havelocks however did not allow the soldiers to dominate as they came back with a storm and scored a try through Niroshan Fernando. With its conversion Army’s lead was whittled down to 7-10 at the breather.
Perhaps the breather gave the Havelocks more energy, paving the way for a delighted Havelocks rally. Havies skipper Muthuthantri figured next when he cut through the Army defence to score mid left for an unconverted try and with a penalty also coming their way the Park Club lads were in the lead at 15-7. Then came a peach of a try by Chamara Dabare and another by Niroshan Fernando which put the Havelocks firmly in the driving seat.
Army however was not willing to call it quits. They kept on hammering at the Havies and managed to cause quite a lot of confusion with their Fijii player Jaleedola Lallis crashing over for a try. The game had its faults. It was not one to be enjoyed by fluent moves but by hard robust play by both sets of forwards.
The foreign referee who controlled the game had a tight leash on the game and even Red Carded James Brown of the Park Club.
The Race Course rugby grounds had all the trimmings of an international arena and it is felt that more games should be played at this venue.