Cops sink Sailors, CR down Army
Police SC centre Hirantha Perera makes a breakthrough to score against Navy SC - Pic by Eshan Fernando
Police SC made a brilliant start to the SLR Nippon Paint Club Rugby League Championship 2023/24, brushing off Navy SC by 41-22 in their season opener played at the Police Park yesterday. The Cops were aggressive from the onset, forcing the Sailors to commit errors and thus taking an early advantage by gaining bonus points by the halftime, which ended in favour of the home team 31-8.
Despite taking their opponents to the cleaners during the first half, Police were forced to defend after the resumption. But they ended up with a tally of six tries, four conversions and a penalty to wrap up the game in style. Navy, on the other hand were forced to defend during the first half, but made a brilliant comeback in the second half, only to complete with a tally of three tries, two conversions and a penalty.
For the winners the Perera duo – Matheesha and Hirantha – were brilliant with their canny moves and sudden breakthroughs, while they had the brilliances of flyhalf Prince Chamara and flanker Lahiru Thilakaratne adding vigour to their style. They were dominant as a unit with both forwards and three-quarters doing their bits to flummox the Sailors.
Navy were totally outplayed by Police in the first half, who were perfect at set pieces, which eventually enabled them to brace five tries before the halftime break. Yet, skipper Thilina Weerasinghe, lock Anushka Ramesh and flanker Denuwan Wickramaarachchi acting sensibly at crucial points of the game.
It was the home team that struck first blood with a collective forward move, which enabled Chamara to put over an easy conversion to gain a lead of 7-0 earlier on. Then centre Hirantha Perera made a unsuspecting move to go past the entire Navy defence and scored far right to expand their lead to 12-0 by the 12th minute.
But the Sailors managed to strike back through flanker Denuwan Wickramaarachchi, who braced a brilliant try that went unconverted five minutes later, as they trailed 5-12. Flanker Lahiru Thilakaratne received an offload from a brilliant three-quarter move to brace Police’s third try in the 24th minute, which was easily put over by Chamara to expand their lead to 19-5.
Navy skipper Weerasinghe rightfully opted to take a penalty that came in their favour to help his side close in 19-8 four minutes later, only to be retaliated in the very next minute by a brilliant breakthrough by winger Matheesha Perera, who took charge of an error by the Sailors, who failed to gather the ball from the restart. Despite Chamara’s kick went astray, Police expanded their lead to 24-8 and gain important bonus points. Just before the strike of halftime, Chamara himself was in the spotlight, as he scored a brilliant try and converted it to gain a healthy lead of 31-8 before the break.
Five minute after the resumption, winger Matheesha followed up his earlier brilliance, as he repeated in similar fashion to land a try under the post. With Chamara’s conversion, Police further expanded the lead to 38-8.
But the home team found themselves in the defensive when the Sailors regrouped with the introduction of fresh legs into the field. First they retaliated brilliantly, to outplay the entire Police defence as their three-quarters worked the ball to hand lock Anushka Ramesh to score in the 48th minute. Skipper Weerasinghe added the extra points to cut down the deficit to 38-15.
The Sailors then responded with a fine forward move to score a collective try in the 67th minute as Weerasinghe added extra points and further shortened the gap to 38-22. But the Cops made amends to their mishaps, before being awarded a penalty, to which Chamara responded well to finish off the game 41-22 in favour of Police.
At Panagoda, CR&FC made a brilliant start to their campaign by outplaying Army SC 55-8 in another game played. CR led 36-3 at halftime and scored from as much as nine tries and five conversions, while the Soldiers scored from an unconverted try and a solitary penalty.