CR’s comeback curve?
CR&FC who started the season off on a bang and suddenly suffered three setbacks at the hands of Navy, Kandy and Police, will take on CH&FC, another side that promised much but have not lived up to expectations in their first round encounter of the Dialog sonsored ‘A’ Division inter club game at Longden Place this evening.
CR and CH, traditional rivals in club rugby will face off today at Longdon Place - File pic
The schedule for kick off is 4 pm with Dubai based Sri Lankan expatriate banker and Trinitian old boy Clement Isaac flown in to officiate the game today.
CR started off the season with back to back wins against Army and the Havelocks and promised much with their young side with a combined average age of just twenty three. Thereafter their highs have turned into lows and have sadly been deflated as the season progressed and would now find it rather difficult to even find themselves in the top three.
CH on the hand have been lamenting that that their rugby grounds have been taken by their club cricketers with the commencement of the Premier Cricket season clashing with the rugby calendar and have had no proper place to call their own be it for practice or to host their home games.
The Maitland Crescent side can nevertheless keep giving this same old excuse as and when they lose as this predicament was foreseen before the tournament even began. The SLRFU had intimated this to them and even informed them that they would compensate with finding the expenses for the shifted venues for their home games. Perhaps a better coordination from the rugby administrators of the club should have nullified this problem much earlier. The Club Officials owe it at least to their sponsors and their fans who perhaps must be cheesed off with current state of affairs experienced.
Rimzi Jamaldeen is a name that would be mentioned each time CH takes the field and his boots have always got them on the score board this season. In their last game he kicked his side to lead at the half way mark against Police when he put over four penalties from angles. Sadly his side could not rally behind him to ensure they upped the tempo and maintained the pressure and seal a win. Police cornered them beautifully with open rugby to rattle them eventually and plant four tries in the second half to win.
On paper CR look the fancied side to win and if Robbie Malneek, their star Kiwi center plays the entire game, then CH may have hell to pay.