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Ceylonese Rugby and Football Club which suffered three successive defeats in the last three matches of the 'A' division League Tournament, face the tough task of overcoming the Sri Lanka Police in the quarter-finals of the Caltex Inter-club knock-out tournament for the Clifford Cup at Longdon Place today.

CR won the first round game in the Caltex 'A' division league 11-7 while the policemen won the return game 12-9 and another close tussle for supremacy can be expected when these two teams clash for the third time this season.

CR will miss the services of former Sri Lanka skipper Viraj Prasantha and second rower Roshan Perera both of whom are on the injured list. Prasantha's place in the front row will be taken by Mohamed Majeed while former Kandy SC player R. Jayasinghe will fill the vacant lock forward's berth. The policemen will be at full strength with former Sri Lanka prop forward Norman Silva making a welcome return to the side. Silva who played for Sri Lanka for a record 12 consecutive years from 1986 to 1998 will bind down in the front row with ex-Sri Lanka prop forward 'kunta' Tillekeratne.

The policemen should get a large share of possession with the experienced Asela Mulhumala likely to strike a shade facter than his vis-a-vis Majeed in the set scrums while in the line outs the police duo of Wilson and Kulatunge should hold sway. A close tussle for supremacy can be expected in the loose with police's Tillekeratne, Norman Silva, Murhumala, Wilson, Kulatunge and skipper Leelaratne being confronted by CR's Majeed, Nawaz, Dinesh Fernando, Abeysuriya and the de Saram brothers Charya and Savantha.

The forte of the policeman have been their powerful forwards and they are likely to keep play with them with Ajantha Rodrigo's booming kicks to touch giving them territorial advantage. The Red Shirts will rely on their three quarters to deliver the goods. If the halves combination of Nishantha and Peiris clicks then they should be able to breach the police defence as they have some hard and penetrative runners in Asanga Rodrigo, Doray, Ekanayake and skipper Musafer with full back Halimdeen joining the line to form the overlap.

CR ANDFC - Gavin Jayasekera, Mohamed Majeed, Lakmal Abeysuriya, Charya de Saram, R. Jayasinghe, Shamly Nawaz, Dinesh Fernando, Savantha de Saram, Champika Nishantha and Roshan Peiris, Kishan Musafer (captain), Asanga Rodrigo, M.R. Doray, Niroshan Ekanayake, Zulfiker Halimdeen.

POLICE - Norman Silva, Asela Mulhumala, W.T. Tillekeratne, Pradeep Wilson, S.P. Kulatunge, Susantha Kumara, Aruna de Silva, Lalith Leelaratne (captain), Anjula Silva and Harshana Wijeweera, Sampath Galewala, Nilusha Fernando, Ajantha Rodrigo, Champika Thushara, Chinthaka Perera. (R.S.)

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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