CH&FC stun the park club lads
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What should have been a possible win for hosts Havelocks Sports Club was overturned by the gritty CH&FC, who walked out winners by a close 27-25 in their second round match of the Dialog Rugby League Championship at Havelock Park yesterday.
Havies would have gone into the game with a psychological advantage of claiming the first round win by 31-26, but yesterday it was a total contrast coupled up with a few critical decisions from the referee that went against them.
Putting all their acts together, the Havies made the perfect setting by placing three tries, two conversions and a couple of penalties, to lead the halftime by 25-13. But that was all they could do as CH totally outran them after the turnaround.
By then the visitors had earned their points through a converted try off prop Henry Terrence and a conversion and a drop goal off the boots of fullback Samuel Maduwantha for their 13 points. CH then made a brilliant comeback to catch up the scores off a converted try off three-quarter Avantha Lee in the 45th minute, which was followed by a breakaway try by Imanka Ariyapala, who received fine offload from flanker Yoshitha Rajapaksa, in the 61st minute. Both tries were converted by Maduwantha.
Havelocks made heavy inroads to create scoring opportunities, but on every occasion, CH capitalised to turn the advantage in their favour and end the game with a two-point margin to come amongst the top three sides of the ongoing league.