CR’s second half rally insufficient to sink the sailors
CR & FC came to within a hairs breath of pulling off their second consecutive shock win in two weeks when the gallant defending champions Navy eventually held on to beat them by 30 points (3 goals 3 penalties) to 26 (1 goal, 2 tries, 3 penalties) in their first round game of the Dialog Sponsored ‘A’ Division league club encounter at Welisara yesterday.
A Navy player tries to run through CR defence. Pic by Ranjith Perera
At half time Navy led the contest 16-9 after opening their account with two penalties put over by full back Reza Mubarak followed by winger Dinusha Fernando crossing the line for a try. Mubarak goaled the try and followed it up with his third penalty a few minutes before half time, as CR replied in the same half courtesy three penalties kicked over by Kanchana Ramanayake as his team made a rallied in a valiant bid to match their rivals.
It did not take long however for Navy to increase their lead to 23-9 in the sixth minute of the second half, when their Fijian centre Setafano Cakau ran over fifty metres to score a try under the posts after he received a pass when the ball came out unmarked off a ruck. Reza Mubarak had no difficulty in making the simple conversion for Navy to surge ahead into the lead.
The Sailors then pressed on and piled up more points through their number eight Sathya Ranatunga after their forwards out-mauled their CR counterparts to score another try. Mubarak made no mistake with the conversion. Navy led 30/9.
If Navy thought that they had sealed the game they were in for a rude awakening midway in the second half as the CR forwards and backs rallied together and after some superb forays into the Navy half, cut down the lead to 30-14. Their New Zealand centre Robbie Malneek crept through after the forwards won the ball in a line-out.
Spurred on by the try CR made more attacks that resulted in full back Rochana Hettiarachchi following the ball to pick and race to score a try beating the Navy defence. He missed the conversion to his own try as the scores read 30-19 in favour of Navy.With five minutes left for play CR once again took a short tap to a penalty and sent the ball out to Malneek to score their third try under the posts. Ramanayake converted to reduce the deficit. Navy led 30/26. That score remained the final score line as CR labored in Sailors territory for the next few minutes for Navy to hold onto a superb win and a game witnessed by all.
Spaniard referee Eduardo Martin residing in Doha, Qatar flew into officiate this game.