Navy Sports Club stunned the CR & FC when they edged them out by 17 Points (1 Try, 2 Penalties, 2 Drop Goals) to 12 Points (4 Penalties) win in their Inter Club Caltex Clifford Cup knock-out semi final played at Royal Sports Complex yesterday.
Navy SC’s Centre Chula Susantha in
attacking way with CR & FC centre Nigel
Ratwatte giving chase.
Pic by Ranjith Perera |
At the short breather Navy were leading 9-6
Navy SC played good rugby in the second half. They had a clear lead in the line outs and in the loose. Navy SC’s Kalana Amarasinghe got the better of his counterpart Ashan Karthalies.
Namal Rajapaksa led the Navy pack well. His ghosting breaks were a constant occurring. CR & FC worked their line at every given opportunity. Their winger Vishvamithra Jayasinghe was dangerous in his moves. The score was dead locked at 12 a piece and the game went in to extra time and Navy scored first.
For CR & FC Vishwamithra Jayasinghe, Shabeer Mohamed, Ishan Noor and Zulki Hameed played well. For Navy Sumedha Malawana, Namal Rajapaksa and Kalana Amarasinghe were outstanding.
CR & FC drew first blood in the 5th minute of the game when the Navy line was spotted off side. Reza Mubarak was spot on with the penalty.
Eight minutes later Navy SC equalized through a Nuwan Hettiarachchi penalty. CR & FC hit back through full back Reza Mubarak with another penalty. But it was short lived as Dev Anand’s golden boots got a drop kick. Ten minutes later a Reza Mubarak penalty kick hit the uprights. Navy SC fly half Dev Anand took Navy ahead through a neat penalty kick.
After the turn around Reza Mubarak put over two penalties while Dev Anand continued his kicking abilities when he dropped a neat goal 40 meters out. After the scores were dead locked at 12 a piece, play went into extra time.
Former Trinity fly half Suranga Pushpakumara caught the entire CR & FC on the blind side to score the winning try and take Navy SC to the finals.
The game was controlled by Arabian Gulf referee Alan Withcombe. |
E-mail
