CH in glorious win over Army

Ranjeeva Seneviratne

RUGBY: The Colombo Hockey and Football Club came up with their best performance for the season with a resounding 42-26 win over Sri Lanka Army on Sunday at Maitland Crescent.

It was CH's three quarters who stole the limelight with a dazzling display of open rugby. They made maximum use of the 'good ball' which came their way by running the ball at every opportunity and crossed the Army goal line on eight occasions.

They won an abundance of possession from the set scrums and line outs with Achala Perera striking a shade faster than his vis-a-vis Mahesh Perera in the set scrums while in the line outs the CH duo of Sumedha Malewana and Dinesh Sanjeewa held sway.

The CH 'eight' spearheaded by skipper Dilanka Wijesekera ably supported by Ranaweera, Achala Perera, Dinesh Sanjeewa, Malawana, and Senarath gave a sterling display in the loose.

Their halves combination of Tuan Shamrock and Sajith Bandara hit it off smoothly with centres Rukshan Wijesinghe and Maheesha de Silva slicing through the soldiers defence with their side-stepping and speed while winger Lakala Perera made some daring runs.

Scrum half Tuan Shamrock had an excellent game. He dished out clean passes to fly half Bandara and also caught the opponents defence napping with his breaks from the base of the scrum.

It was a disappointing display by the Army with their power-packed forwards failing to dominate in the loose while the three quarters whenever they were in possession lacked imagination to breach the CH defence.

CR-Police

The formidable CR and FC made amends for their defeat at the hands of Kandy SC with a convincing 32-15 win over Police at Longden Place on Sunday.

The CR forwards gave a much better display with the return of Pavithra Fernando and Naveen Wijetunge giving them the fire-power to outplay the police 'eight' Evergreen Pavithra led from the front and with Swarnatilleke, Mohamed, Dharmatilleke, Wijetunge and Terrence also giving off their best the Red Shirts 'eight' prevailed over their counterparts in the loose.

Sri Lanka centre Ashan de Costa playing in the unaccustomed position of fly half had an excellent game feeding the three quarters at every turn while his long kicks to touch also gave them territorial advantage.

The entry of Amjad Buksh and Dinesh Kumara gave the CR 'threes' more thrust in the second half and the latter capped a fine performance by scoring two splendid tries.

Radhika Hettiarachchi who manned the last line of defence also had a superb game with his safe collections and booming kicks to touch and also joined the line to form the overlap.

It was good spoiling work by the police particularly centres Nilusha Fernando and Priyantha Pradeep which prevented CR from winning by a much bigger margin with Fernando and Pradeep bringing down their opponents with bone-crunching tackles.

The police forwards gave a courageous display with Welagedera, Wilson, Hewawasam, Indrachapa and Dias being outstanding.

Kandy SC - Havelocks

Kandy Sports Club kept their unbeaten record intact with a 27-3 win over a gallant Havelocks outfit at Nittawela on Sunday.

The famed Kandy 'eight' was surprisingly outplayed by the much fitter and faster Havelocks forwards and it was left to Kandy's star studded three quarters to fashion Kandy's victory.

It was once again fly half Fazil Marija and full back Nalaka Weerakkody who stole the limelight. It was Sri Lanka fly half Marija who fashioned Kandy's first two tries with two daring breaks from mid field while evergreen Weerakkody stood out with his safe collections and booming kicks to touch while also constantly joining the line to form the overlap.

He contributed 12 points by scoring one try, firing across one penalty and making two conversions.

With this win Kandy SC continue to head the points table as they strive to retain the 'A' Division League Title for a record seventh successive year.