CH - Havelocks match should be a thriller

Ranjeeva Seneviratne

RUGBY: The Colombo Hockey and Football Club which turned in a dazzling display of open rugby to score a smashing 42-26 win over Army have the tough task of overcoming a vastly improved Havelocks outfit in their Caltex 'A' Division League second round match at Havelock Park tomorrow.

The park club gave a courageous display to go down fighting to the mighty Kandy SC at Nittawela last week and will be hell-bent on beating CH tomorrow to avenge the 15-18 defeat suffered in the first round game a fortnight ago.

CH and FC will once again miss the services of Fijian centre Jimmy Bolakoro and ex-Navy and Sri Lanka lock forward Manjula Ruwantilleke while Havelocks will be at full strength with former skipper Rajiv Ganapathy returning to their fold after turning out for the CH and FC last year.

Havelocks with a much fitter and faster set of forwards outplayed the power-packed Kandy SC 'eight' last week. Veteran prop forward Shafi Hassen has been a source of inspiration to his team-mates with his fiery loose play ably supported by Jayasena,

Sandaruwan, Jayasuriya, Seneviratne and skipper Rajiv Perera and should give the famed CH 'eight' especially Ranaweera, Achala Perera, Dinesh Sanjeewa, Malewana, Senarath and skipper Wijesekera a torrid lime in the loose.

In the set scrums CH and FC's Achala Perera should get the better of his vis-a-vis Rajiv Perera while in the line outs the Havelocks trio of Jayasena, Amarasinghe and Jayasuriya have the edge over the CH duo of Sanjeewa and Malewana.

CH and FC's three quarters dazzled last week and should once again run the ball at every opportunity.

The halves combination of Tuan Shamrock (who had an excellent game) and Sajith

Bandara hit it off smoothly while centres Rukshan Wijesinghe and Matheesha de Silva should slice through the Havelocks defence with their side-stepping and speed while on the wing they will have the services of that elusive runner Lakala Perera with full back Dinuk de S. Wijeyeratne also joining the line to form the overlap.

The park club will strive to nullify this advantage with some fierce tackling. CH fly half Bandara will be kept in close check by the Park's club's flankers Jayasuriya and Seneviratne while Havelocks centres Suranga and Samith are solid tacklers who are capable of bringing down their opposite numbers Wijesinghe and de Silva with bone-crunching tackles.

It is left to be seen how Havelocks new halves combination of Roshan Rajapakse and Samantha Lakshan will fare tomorrow. If they click they too could make maximum use of the 'good ball' which comes their way as they have two hard runners in centres Nuwan Samith and Ruwan Suranga in addition to an attacking full back in Dilip Methruwan.

HAVELOCKS: Shafi Hassen, Rajiv Perera (Captain), D. Sandaruwan, Kavinda Jayasena, Chathuranga Amerasinghe, Ravi Jayasuriya, T.D. Seneviratne, Rajiv Ganapathy, Roshan Rajapakse and Samantha Lakshan, Ruchira Ratnage, Ruwan Suranga, Nuwan Samith, Zakir Badurdeen or Suranga Jagoda, Dilip Methruwan.

CH AND FC - Jayantha Ranaweera, Achala Perera, Sajitha Adhikari, Dinesh Sanjeewa, Safeer Jhaan, Wasamba Senarath, Dilanka Wijesekera (Captain), Sumedha Malewana, Tuan Shamrock and Sajith Bandara, Lakala Perera, Rukshan Wijesinghe, Matheesha de Silva, Niroshan Ekanayake, Dinuk de S. Wijayaratne.