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Caltex Rugby:

“CRushing” win have Police on the run!

Last Saturday the crowds had dwindled down to less than a couple of hundreds at Longdon Place, to witness the CR & FC play against the Police, in the “2nd Round” fixture of the Caltex ‘A’ Division League Rugby Championship.

As one keen ‘CR’ supporter Jeremy David speculated, ‘perhaps the manner in which the CR lost to Kandy could have disillusioned the fans from coming’ - to see another chasing by the ‘cops’! It was such a vast change, as compared to the previous Sunday’s game, when the crowds thronged the Longdon Place Rugby grounds and watched the ‘unbeaten’ Kandy Sports Club triumph over the CR & FC.

Although the weather and ground conditions were excellent, there was little excitement in the air, as CR strode out along with the strongly built Police players, onto the well-maintained rugby grounds at Longdon Place. “CR” certainly was aware of the fact that they had to ‘kick’ their fears off and try to forget the awful mistakes they made against Kandy.

Yet, it took quite sometime for both teams to correct the usual blistering ‘big blunders’ of erratic aligning in the three-quarter line. They also failed in keeping those vital ‘safe hands’ moving, to receive and pass the ball, instead of dropping it! Any team must follow the basic ‘game-plan’ to gain good possession and go forward, making the opposition tire out of their defence options.

Anyway, within about fifteen minutes from the commencement of the game, the CR ‘three-quarters’ aligned well and “Big Boy” T. Henry made a well-calculated breakthrough.

He nabbed the Police threes ‘napping’ and he burst through speedily, with good support play on his outside by CR wing three Ruwan Hettiarachchi, who scored a fine try, close to the corner flag. This try went unconverted, as it was out of the distance of the CR place-kicker, with a dismal attempt to kick it over!

This change of rhythm and more focus on opening up the game, saw the CR line in ‘top gear’, with valiant efforts been made to neaten the alignment of their threes. It was a test for the Police defence to block and counter the inside moves of the CR but they found it difficult to prevent CR from taking the better options of using the ‘man-over’ and taking the ‘gaps’!

However the Police did well to regain possession through ‘spilt beans’ - which was caused by CR’s faulty handling of the ball and the Police exercising intentional ‘ball turn-over’.

Many were the opportunities for both teams to work their moves on the ‘outside’, which CR finally did fruitfully by taking the initiative, to score two trys and gain it through good ‘support play’ by No. 8 Naveen Wijetunga and prop forward Swarnatilleke. Mohamed Sheriff was successful in converting one of the trys-bringing the CR tally of points to a decent score of 17-Police nil.

Now it was time for the Police to ‘put their act together’ - and sure they did! They were seen tackling their opposite numbers relentlessly, which suddenly had CR ‘all at sea’ - rattled with effective consolidation and some sizzling moves to penetrate the CR backs!

There was a positive ‘set-up’ for the Police threes to breakthrough the CR defence but a clever move by the Police fly half Harshan Wijeweera, saw him positioning himself well in line of the goal posts, taking his time to balance his stance, to kick a fine drop goal and see the ball go right between the ‘uprights’!

This was an adventurous decision on his part but he did not ‘miss’ so there was no wasted opportunity of a ‘possible’ try! Some variation in scoring points using one’s superlative individual skills, is what most Rugby fans like to see - so a good drop goal is lovely to watch!

In the second half, CR virtually ‘took the law into their hands’ and were exploring every possibility of scoring, with organised teamwork and awareness of the ‘suspect’ weaknesses of the Police in their defence line up.

Many a time the Police were able capitalize on basic errors and selfish play by the CR threes, which enabled the Police to ‘capture’ the loose ball and score first, through a short bout of running between A. S. A. Dias and Prop forward Hewawasam who finally touched down.

Again, it was the ‘high work rate’ of the CR skipper, Anuradha Dharmatilleke that made a substantial difference to the overall game. He was seen in the ‘thick’ of it all, be it the ‘forward ploys’ or the cover defence, leading his pack of ‘warriors’ on a ‘one way street’ to the Police goal line.

Perhaps CR’s competent foreign coach, Tavita Tulagaese having studied the patterns of play, decided wisely to bring in two quick replacements, in the way of Hasith Perera and Anshwad Buksh, which almost immediately paid off with good results.

This move caused more pressure on a perplexed Police contingent, who had to contend with two fresh energized players - when their energies were almost fully spent!

Despite conceding three more tries after this, the Police fought back to gain possession and secure another try through A.S.A. Dias, in the closing stages. Wijeweera converted to give the Police 2 more points, but the victory belonged to the better side “CR”!

Referee Pradeep Fernando controlled the game well despite having to answer some disputable questions.

 

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