CR maintain winning streak with second half rally
CR&FC produced a superb second-half performance to defeat Army SC 33-10 in the Club Rugby League 2019/2020 at Longdon Place yesterday.
Despite being a home fixture, Army had to play the game at the home of CR&FC. The visitors for the day, CR, drew first blood in the 13th minute as full-back Riza Mubarak slotted over a penalty.
CR messed up the restart and Army pounced on the ball through fly-half Ashan Bandara and skipper/scrum-half Manoj Bandara.
The nippy number nine Bandara finished off the play by dotting down the ball under the posts. Full-back Isuru Madagedara added the extra points as Army secured the lead.
CR piled on plenty of pressure in the set scrums which resulted in a penalty for the ‘Reds’ which Mubarak converted to cut down the deficit to just one point.
Army gave away an easy penalty for an offside infringement in the half-hour mark which Mubarak slotted home for CR to regain the lead.
Just before half-time, Madagedara and Mubarak traded penalties as CR&FC took a slender 12-10 lead going into the break.
After lemons, CR made sure they played a tight game, not allowing the soldiers to chip away with points. Outside centre Janidu Dilshan intercepted a pass and dashed through to score CR’s first try. Mubarak continued his good day with the boot to extend the lead.
Army was down to 14 men when Sudaraka Dikkumbura received a yellow card for continuous infringements. CR made Army pay for their mistakes as hooker Supun Warnakulasooriya scored from the back of a rolling maul in the 55th minute as Army started to crumble under pressure.
After a few minutes, the numbers were even as CR lost their skipper Omalka Gunaratne to the naughty chair. However, CR didn’t have any problems to put replacement winger Reeza Rafaideen in space to score their third and match-winning try in the 66th minute. Mubarak maintained a 100 percent record with another conversion from the far corner as CR registered their fourth win of the season.