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Can the high riding Ceylonese Rugby and Football Club preserve their unbeaten record by overcoming the Sri Lanka Army? The answer to this question will be found only this evening when these two unbeaten teams clash in their Caltex 'A' Division League rugby match at Longden Place today.

The Red Shirts are in a buoyant mood after their runaway 42-9 win over arch rivals Havelocks last week but today they face the tough task of beating the marauding soldiers who will go all out to smash CR's unbeaten record with a fine display.

Possession will play a vital role in the final outcome. In the set scrums former Sri Lanka Skipper Viraj Prasantha should get the better of his vis-a-vis Rajapakse while the line outs should be shared between CR's Sumedha Jayasinghe, Roshan Perera and the Army duo of Jayasuriya and Madurasinghe. In the loose Army's power-packed forwards Karunaratne, Madurasinghe, Rajapakse, Udayakumara, Jayasuriya and Rodrigo will be confronted by equally good forwards in Viraj Prasantha, Shantha Rohana, Jayasinghe, Pavithra Fernando, Roshan Perera and Savantha de Saram.

The Red Shirts have a superior back division. The halves combination of Nishantha and Peiris has hit it off smoothly. Centres Kaluarachchi and Abeygunawardena are hard runners who are capable of piercing the Army defence but the biggest throat to the soldiers will be winger Kishan Musafer (who scored three superb tries last week) in addition to attacking full back Asanga Rodrigo.

If the soldiers are to make maximum use of the good ball that comes their way then fly half Ajit Peiris should set his three quarters in motion instead of kicking ahead aimlessly as they have two fine centres in Kapila Knowlton and Vajira Jayatillake who should test the CR defence to the hilt with their probing runs while on the wing the soldiers have the services of that powerful runner Sithara Fernando with full back T.A. Silva joining the line to form the overlap.

Incidentally Silva played a key role in Army's success last week with his safe collections and booming kicks to touch in addition to his excellent place kicking.

The teams:

CR AND FC - Shantha Rohana, Viraj Prasantha, Lakmal Abeysuriya, Roshan Perera, Sumedha Jayasinghe, Pavithra Fernando, Shamly Nawaz or Chinthaka Abeysuriya, Savantha de Saram, Champika Nishantha and Roshan Peiris, Kishan Musafer, Haren Kaluarachchi, Dilan Abeygunawardena, Nishantha Kumara, Asanga Rodrigo (Captain).

ARMY - S.K. Udayakumara, Y.P. Rajapakse, Duminda Pullikuttiarachchi, Nishantha Jayasuriya, Saman Madurasinghe, Herathge Karunaratne, Colin Rodrigo, Samarasinghe or B.M. Dharmapala, Naufer Rahim and Ajith Peiris (Captain), Mohamed Naushad, Kapila Knowlton, Vajira Jayatilleke, Sithara Fernando, T.A. Silva. (R.S.) 

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