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by Sharm de Alwis

YC summed it up in his terse comment, "Police cooked their own goose and didn't even have a good chef".

That the Police lost to CR and FC on their home sward is inconceivable when you consider they had 90% of possession from scrums and line-outs with their number 4 scaling heights like a salmon on the Niagara Falls and fear psychosis quite evident in the ranks of the Red shirts against the high ball.

Police had the game firm in handcuffs but at the crucial moments they were terrible - with raising in it. It was a mistake of high order that made them go for 'hits' every time the ball came out of the scrums. They were up against a formidable CR pack where even their number 18, dubbed by YC as a "blob of phlegm" did his part to keep the adversaries at bay.

CR won by capitalising on the errors strewn by the Police. If I may bring Dietrih Bonhoeffer in to the comment, the Police boarded the wrong train and ran along the corridor in the other direction." Or, perhaps, they believed with Phelps that "the man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.

The final outcome of 16-6 in favour of CR was a gross miscarriage of justice. Five penalties accounted for 18 points as against only one converted try. It made a pathetic tale of today's rugby where the run and pass has been sacrificed on the altar of a surrogate device and as YC said, unequivocally, "the guy who invented the 'hit' must be hit.

Police didn't have to bother much about Roshan Peiris firing a 30 meter penalty to draw first blood because just six minutes later Harasha Wijeweera of the Police made the balance even with a 25 meter penalty.

Off one of the rare occasions that CR got ball, Kishan Musafer planted a try off the best three-quarter move of the game, although in cameo and Roshan Peiris converted from a difficult angle. All credit to the boots he wore because in today's scenario place kickers are not even a shadow of Malcolm Wright, Mahinda Ratwatte and Lionel Almeida; Charles Wijewardena, Hajireen and Jamaldeen. Thus CR led 10-6 at lemons.

The Cr coaches Laga and Tony Amit had a chat with the boys over lemons and what a game they turned around. They must have been told to exploit the errors and by gad, did they not do it in splendour!

Harshana Wijeweera put over a penalty to reduce the lead 6-10 but CR's Roshan Peiris was on target with two penalties for the spectators to exhort in stentorian voice.

And then came the high magnitude blunder of the match when Police were offered a penalty under the posts and they opted to run ball. A matter of three points from that kick which even YC would have managed would have given the Blue shirts a whiff to follow up on. It would have been 16-9 and would have given an impetus to fire across in their accustomed style of open rugby.

And thus ended a pulsating game in which the Police with ample possession should have posted 25 points to have won.

The referee started well but went to pieces under the pressure situation. Nevertheless, he has promise and should be one to be counted with a Dttle more experience.

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