Depleted CH and FC confront Police today

Ranjeeva Seneviratne

RUGBY: The formidable CH and FC which went down fighting to league champions Kandy SC by five points to 16 last week should make amends by beating the Sri Lanka Police in their Caltex ‘A’ Division League rugby match at Police Park today.

The lads from Maitland Crescent came up with a courageous display to dominate the first half and led 5-3 before the mighty Kandy SC got their act-together in the next 40 minutes to emerge victorious and retain the Caltex League title for the seventh successive year.

Today CH and FC will miss the services of three key players - Achala Perera, Jimmy Bolakoro and Sajith Bandara who have been suspended after being ordered off the field by the referee in the last two matches.

But they should be able to overcome the Policemen who have played far below expectations losing four matches in a row to CR, Kandy SC, Havelocks and Army.

CH’s power-packed forwards have played a key role in their success this season skipper Dilanka Wijesekera has been a source of inspiration to his team-mates with his fiery loose play and with Ranaweera, Sanjeewa, Jhaan, Ruwantilleke and Malewana giving of their best the CH ‘eight’ should maintain its supremacy in the loose.

The set scrums should be shared between Police’s Nizam and CH’s Tuan Buhari while in the line outs the CH trio of Malewana, Ruwantilleke and Sanjeewa have the edge over Police’s Wilson and Acharige.

CH’s three quarters especially centres Wijesinghe and Matheesha gave a woeful display last week either spiling passes or being tackled in possession by their opposite numbers but today they are likely to give a better display which should enable their wingers Lakala Perera and Niroshan Ekanayake to test the Police defence to the hilt with their daring runs. If the Policemen are to give CH a close run than their three quarters have to come up with a much better performance.

Fly half Harshana Wijeweera should feed his three quarters with ‘good ball’ instead of kicking ahead aimlessly as they have two hard running centres in Nilusha Fernando and Priyantha Pradeeep while on the wings they will have the services of young Hasith Niranga who stood out with his powerful runs down the flank.

Police - Malith Hettiarachchi, Mohamed Nizam, Jayasinghe, Pradeep Wilson (Captain), Nalin Archarige, Gemunu Indrachapa, K. K. Perera, Nishantha Welagedera, Sudesh Dissanayake and Harshana Wijeweera, Hasith Niranga, Nilusha Fernando, Priyantha Pradeep, Ajit Herath Ranjith Kumara,

CH and FC - Jayantha Ranaweera, Tuan Buhari , Damith Perera, Dinesh Sanjeewa, Saffer Jhaan, Manjula Ruwantilleke, Sumedha Malewana, Dilanka Wijesekera (Captain), Tuan Shamrock and Dinuk de S. Wijeyeratne, Lakala Perera, Rukshan Wijesinghe, Matheesha de Silva, Niroshan Ekanayake, Nuwan Basnayake.