Havies clinch third win, beat Police
Pic by Eshan Fernando
Havelocks recorded their third win of the ongoing SLR Nippon Club Rugby League Tournament, as they overcame Police SC by 16-5 in a fourth week encounter played at Police Park yesterday.
The winners were initially given a scare by the Cops, but they managed to thwart all challenges clinically to gain a healthy lead of 13-0 at halftime. They ended the game with a try, a conversion and three penalties, with fullback Samuel Maduwantha making the bulk of scoring.
Out of the final score, Maduwantha single-handedly contributed with 11 points, mainly from his boots as he put over three penalties and a conversion, despite missing two drop goal attempts.
The Cops, despite applying pressure from time to time, had a solitary scoring opportunity, when their backline linked well to cross over for an unconverted try.
Havelocks had the upper hand of the first half with Maduwantha kicking a penalty from the halfway mark in the 15th minute to gain an early 3-0 lead. Despite the Cops retaliating, they were well prevented by the Havies defenders, as they held on to the game with a well-executed plan.
Winger Randitha Warnapura had the honour of touching down in the 33rd minute, after the Havies three-quarters made a quick decision to work the ball deep and give the try-scorer a neat offload to score their solitary try far left. The difficult conversion was put over with ease by Maduwantha, who went on to add another penalty in the 40th minute as Havelocks finished the first half at 13-0.
Police found a passage to breach the Havies defence soon after their winger Jayathu Rajaratne was shown a yellow card in the 46th minute, and three minutes later they executed a neat three-quarter move. This resulted in centre Hirantha Perera receiving a fine offload to touch down far left. After a failed conversion, with their placekicker Prince Chamara being replaced earlier on, Police trailed 5-13.
Despite making valiant attempts by Police, they were not given the opportunity to turn their efforts into points by the Havies defenders, who forced their opponents to commit errors one after another. Eventually Maduwantha took a penalty attempt in the 66th minute to have Havies further expanding their lead to 16-5, which stood as the final score. Despite Havies forward Abdullah Faiz being sent to the sin bin in the 65th minute, Police still failed to penetrate their opponent’s territory.