Ratwatte heroics give CR wafer thin victory
Fly half Tarinda Ratwatte was the hero of CR&FC as he did the bulk of the scoring to guide his side to a wafer thin one-point victory (24 points to 23) over traditional rivals CH&FC in the Dialog Inter-Club rugby encounter played at Longdon Place yesterday.
In the end what matters is the win. Ratwatte from the 24 points that his side scored, contributed 22 of those by going over for a try, converting one and booting over five penalties enabling them to begin their campaign on a winning note.
CR who was trailing 15-20 at the breather came back in the second half and accumulated their points through a goal, a try and four penalties as against to the two goals and three penalties scored by CH.
On the other hand it was sweet revenge for CR who lost both their first and second round last season to CH with scores of 12-19 and 24-25 respectively.
The supporters of both the sides anticipated a closely contested game but it was not be as the open play was not to be seen with neither side dominating.
It was CH who drew first blood in the sixth minute through a penalty booted over by fly half Samuel Maduwantha which was short-lived as CR surged ahead nine minutes later from an unconverted try scored by flanker Samoan Joseph Pamua.
Samuel put CH ahead with the game 20 minutes old by booting over a penalty which followed by them further increasing their lead six minutes later with star winger Naveen Henakankanamge going over for a try and Samuel adding the extra points.
CR undeterred made some sporadic moves which saw them being offered a penalty in the 33rd minute which Ratwatte made no mistake and four minutes later he went over for a try which was converted helping the Longdon Place take over the lead 15-13.
With the short whistle a few minutes away, the ensuing battle between the two teams saw CH skipper and flanker Yoshitha Rajapaksa going over for a try off a maul and with Samuel making the conversion saw CH go into the lead 20-15 at the breather.
On resumption all the scoring came through penalties and CR coming into the game with a different plan succeeded to decrease the lead in the fourth minute from a penalty put over Ratwatte, which was his third.
However, CH counter attacked through a penalty booted over by Samuel three minutes later. Two more penalties booted over by Ratwatte within the space of five minutes of which one was over 60 metres was sufficient for CR to hold on and come out victorious by a single point.
Referee – Priyantha Gunaratne