Rugby talk with Siva

CR and FC's bubble bursts

The unbeaten CR and FC was brought down to earth by Kandy SC. On Sunday in their last and decisive game in the league Rugby tourney for the Caltex 'A' Division Championship at Nittawela in front of a massive crowd with this defeat the bubble of invincibility of CR was burst by Kandy and dashed their dreams of becoming the kings of local rugby.

The scores were Kandy SC 23 points and CR and FC 15 points, and Kandy continues to reign the local rugby world for yet another year.

The game from the start was a tensed up affair with both teams striving to outsmart the other and in fairness to CR and FC, they were the better side where the scrums and the lines out were concerned.

They jumped well in the lines out and gave good balls to the back division and also in the scrums they outshoved the Kandy pack and did well to even win a few tight heads.

CR and FC began the proceedings with a try by their centre Harin Kaluarachi with no resistance from the Kandy defence which went unconverted for CR to take an early 5-nil lead.

Kandy then forced a scrum on the CR & FC goal line which CR won, but before scrum half Zulki Hamid could not lay his hands on the ball Kandy's scrum half Amjad Buksh and flanker Sean Wijesinghe pounced on this ball inside the CR goal area for Sean Wijesinghe to scope and equalise 5-5, as Nalaka Weerakody missed the conversion. CR and FC again took the lead when No. 8 Shamly Nawaz scored.

The conversion by Dhanushka Pushpakumara went astray scores CR 10-5 and lemons were taken.

On resumption CR increased their lead to 15-5 when CR's skipper Pavithra Fernando Barged over for a try which too went unconverted by Pushpakumara and this is all that CR and FC could score in the match.

Kandy during this period lost Nalaka Weerakkody and Malith Silva to the "Sin Bin". But they continued to capitalise on CR's mistakes and continued to play gamely.

This was when CR's full back Pushpakumara cleared a ball from the CR half into the hands of Kandy centre Chamara Vithanage, which he gleefully accepted and ran through the CR defence and when challenged punted the ball over the defence for the ball to go into the CR goal area and bounce correctly for Vithanage to score and Kandy to reduce the lead 10-15. Weerakody missed this conversion too.

Then Weerakody succeeded with a 40 metre penalty to make Kandy's score 13-15. He again dropped a neat goal for Kandy to take the lead 16-15.

It was at this stage the CR and FC skipper Pavithra Fernando displayed poor sportsmanship when he led his team off the field alleging that an 'unseen' missile had been thrown at a player. Earlier too an empty King Coconut was thrown at the touch judge which was seen.

But play continued without any disruption. But the CR players leaving the field on this occasion was unwarranted as after the resumption there were no further incidents of any unruly behaviour by the spectators.

But the action of the CR skipper and his players was the turning point in the game which spurred the Kandy players to play their hearts out and were seen storming into the CR and FC territory with the Red Shirts seeing Red.

During one of these attacks, Kandy's centre Vithanage scored again a try during injury time by the corner flag and Nalaka Weerakody converted this from a difficult angle to take Kandy to a 23-15 lead and make sure that Kandy are still the kings of local rugby.

Havelocks outplay Army

Havelocks continued their late form by outplaying the Army in their last match of the Caltex 'A' Division League Rugby Tourney by 24 points (2 goals, 2 tries) to 11 points (1 try and 2 penalties) at Galle Face on Saturday.

It is a try that Havelocks have come into their own only during the last stages of the League Tournament. But this will stand them in good stead in the forthcoming Clifford Cup knockout Tournament.

Army began scoring with a penalty by knowlton, Havelocks struck back with a try by prop Hassen goaled by Thajudeen to lead 7-3. Thajudeen continued his good work with a try which went unconverted for Havelocks to lead 12-3 at the breather.

During the second half army scored an unconverted try by prop Kotalawela to reduce Havelock's lead to 12-8. This was short lived as Havelocks went further ahead with a try by full back Saliya Kumara which was kicked correctly by Thajudeen for Havelocks to lead 19-8.

Army narrowed this lead with another penalty by Knowlton 17-11. Then the Havelocks prop Badurdeen scored an unconverted try for the match to end 24-11 in favour of Havelocks.

CH & FC too good for Navy

CH and FC proved too good for Navy in their Caltex 'A' division League Encounter when they outplayed the Sailors by a huge 48 points, 5 goals, 2 tries and 1 drop goal) to a mere 3 points (1 penalty) on Sunday in their last League match at Maitland Crescent.

For CH & FC the man who stood out was their new recruit Imran Marso who converted five tries and put over one drop goal with a personal contribution of 13 points.

With this win CH will go for the Clifford Cup knock-out Tournament with confidence. But for the unpredictable Navy, they seem to be playing in fits and starts.