CR or Havies to sip from the Caltex - Clifford Cup?

RUGBY: Arch rivals Ceylonese Rugby and Football Club and Havelocks Sports Club, which have been unable to lay their hands on club rugby's richest prize - the Clifford Cup, for a long time will clash in the Caltex-Clifford Cup final at Longden Place at 4.30 p.m. today.

The Red Shirts clinched the Clifford Cup the symbol of rugby supremacy for the last time in 1989 when under the leadership of Sheham Siddik they beat Navy by 6-3 in the final. The park club last bagged the trophy in 1981 under the captaincy of Angelo Wickremaratne when it was on offer to the league champions.

Since then the Red Shirts have entered the final on four occasions - losing to CH and FC by 11-15 (1994) and thrice to Kandy SC 6-7 (1996), 6-18 (1997) and 18-21 (1999) in the finals.

The park club stormed into the final thrice during the last 21 years before losing to Police 16-22 (1985), CH and FC 0-4 (1990) and Kandy SC by the staggering margin of 20 points to 51 in 2004.

Havelocks will be at full strength for today's game while the Red Shirts will miss the services of three top players hooker Viraj Prasantha, prop forward Danushka Boteju and No. 8 Anuranga Walpala. Former Sri Lanka skipper Prasantha is not available while Boteju and Walpola are still on the injured list.

Today a terrific tussle for supremacy can be expected with both teams going flat out for victory. It should turn out to be a battle between CR's power-packed forwards and Havelocks speedy three quarters.

Possession will play a vital role in the final outcome. In the set scrums the young CR hooker Anuja Perera should get the better of his vis-a-vis Rajiv Perera while in the line outs the Havelocks trio of Amarasinghe, Boteju and Jayasuriya have the edge over the CR duo of Dharmatilleke and Karthelis.

It is left to be seen how CR's new halves combination of Zulki Hamid and Omar Sariffodeen will fare today. If they click the Red Shirts could make maximum use of the 'good ball' that comes their way as they have two hard runners in centres Mohamed Sheriff and strongly built Achalanka Ayagama and speedy winger Dinesh Kumara in addition to an attacking full back Asanga Rodrigo.

The forte of the park club are their speedy three quarters. The halves combination of Dilan de Zoysa and Sajith Bandara have hit it off smoothly. centres Ruwan Suranga and Lalindra Rodrigo have pierced the opponents defence time and again with their sizzling runs while winger Philip Esingarachchi has stood out with his powerful runs down the flank with full back Dilip Methruwan joining the line to form the overlap.

In the Caltex 'A' Division League Tournament CR won the first round game by 62-7 while in the return match Havelocks triumphed by 9 points to 5.

CR and FC - Eranga Swarnatillke, Anuja Perera, Shamil Mohamed, Anuradha Dharmatillke, Henry Terrance, Ashen Karthelis, Pavithra Fernando (Captain), Shamly Nawaz, Zulki Hamid and Omar Sariffodeen, Dinesh Kumara, Mohamed Sheriff, Achlanka Ayagama, Suranga Pushpakumara, Asanga Rodrigo.

Havelocks - Shafi Hassen, Rajiv Perera, Chathuranga Amarasinghe, Lahiru Boteju, S. B. Dissanayake, Ravi Jayasuriya, T. D. Seneviratne, Tyronne Harrison, Dilan de Zoysa and Sajith Bandara, Philip Esingharachchi, Ruwan Suranga (Captain), Lalindra Rodrigo, Ameen Jamail, Dilip Methruwan

Referee - Nizam Jamaldeen

(R.S.)