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Can Havelocks survive Army's firepower? The answer to this question will be found only this evening when these two teams clash in the semi-finals of the Caltex Inter-club knock-out Rugby Tournament for the Clifford Cup at Longden Place.

The high-riding soldiers won both matches of the Caltex 'A' Division League but today the park club, which scored a morale-boosting 22-15 win over CH and FC, will go all out to topple the soldiers and enter the final.

Havelocks will field the same team which did duty for them against CH while the soldiers have made two changes. Sri Lanka sevens player Sithara Fernando has been shifted to the second row which will see the exit of Rohan Pradeep. Flanker Herathge Karunaratne has moved to the No 8 berth replacing the injured B. M. Dharmapala. The vacant flanker position will be filled by former Trinity and CR winger Anjula Weerakkody.

Possession will play a vital role in the final outcome. In the set scrums Army's Rajapakse should get the better of his vis-a-vis Rajiv Perera while in the line outs the Havelocks duo of Sornaratne and Jayasena should hold sway. In the loose the marauding Army 'eight' should dominate with Jayatilleke, Udayakumara, Rajapakse, Jayasuriya, Karunaratne and Rodrigo being in terrific form. The park club will rely on their three quarters to deliver the goods. The halves combination of Sampath and Dissanayake have hit it off smoothly while Saheed, Perera and Jayawardena are capable of breaching the Army defence with their probing runs but the man who will pose the biggest threat to the soldiers is skipper Sanjeewa Jayasinghe with his powerful runs down the flank as he did against CH and FC three days ago.

The soldiers too possess a fine set of three quarters. Fly half Ajit Peiris should feed his three quarters with 'good ball' instead of trying to go 'solo' or kicking ahead too often as they have two hard running centres in Tikiri Banda and Sri Lanka player Vajira Jayatilleke while on the wing they will have the services of that powerful runner Mohamed Naushad with full back T. A. Silva joining the line to form the overlap.

Army - J. M. Jayatilleke (captain), Y. P. Rajapakse, Udayakumara, Sithara Fernando, Nishantha Jayasuriya, Colin Rodrigo, Anjula Weerakkody, Herathge Karunaratne, Naufer Rahim and Ajith Peiris, Mohamed Naushad, Vajira Jayatilleke, Tikiri Banda, Nalin Vijitha, T. A. Silva

Havelocks - Dilan Ekanayake, Rajiv Perera, Shafi Hassan, Rajiv Sornaratne, Kavinda Jayasena, Siva Wanasinghe, Nishantha Bopearachchi, Rajiv Ganapathy, Sudath Sampath and Tikiri Dissanayake, Sanjeewa Jayasinghe (captain), Haren Perera, Jiffrey Saheed, Thisal Jayawardena, Lalindra Rodrigo. (R.S)

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