Red letter day for Red Shirts

Beat CH & FC 22-11 to win Caltex President’s trophy:

Dinsh WEERAWANSA

RUGBY: Ceylonese Rugby & Football Club (CR & FC) kept their cool to capitalise on mistakes of their opponents to win the glittering Caltex President’s Trophy at Longden Place yesterday.

They had a convincing 22 points to 11 win over CH & FC in the final to regain the much coveted President’s Trophy after a lapse of nine years. CR last won the President’s trophy in 1998 under Champika Nishantha.

The ‘Red Shirts’ collected their points from one goal and five penalties while CH had to be satisfied with a try and two penalty conversions.

The half time deadlock of six-all gave an indication of a tense second half, recalling the memories of the ten-all draw when the two teams last met this season in their return leg Caltex League Championship match at the same venue.

But it was not so as CH made too many errors that eventually cost them the match. Both teams did not produce anything extraordinary stuff to justify the presence of a good Sunday crowd. But CR played a mind game, keeping their cool and only capitalised on the mistakes of their opponents.

Even then, it was the Maitland Crescent Club which made the first blood. Having missed two penalty conversions in the 12th and 16th minutes, CH place kicker cum fly half Sajith Bandara was third time lucky in putting his team in the lead with a 25m penalty in the 17th minute of the first half.

But it was Bandara’s vis-…-vis Senthil Kumara who eventually turned the game in CR’s favour midway in the second half. His booming kicks have been a blessing for the Longden Place Club and yesterday, he was clever enough to make a lavish personal contribution of 15 points towards CR account with five neat penalties.

The first of his five penalties came in the 25th minute of the game as CR levelled the scores 3-all. Two minutes later, a CR player was spotted for holding on and that gave Bandara another chance to put CH back in the lead (6-3) with an easy penalty, 25m out.

The ding dong penalty battle in the first half continued as CR found the equaliser penalty in the 35th minute when Senthil Kumara obliged with his second kick. There were no big moves as both teams preferred not to expose their full potential until the short whistle of referee Aruna Jayasekera.

But the game swung in CR’s favour early in the second half with Kumara finding his third penalty conversion right to see CR regaining the lead 9-6. Two minutes later, Kumara got another chance as a panic CH ‘pack’ made a series of silly blunders. But Kumara was off colour this time.

The first notable move came in the 48th minute of the game but prop forward Swarnatillake missed a golden opportunity when CR was charging. No.8 Senthil Kumara’s fourth penalty conversion in the 50th minute saw CR strengthening their grip and brightening winning chances with a six-point lead 12-6.

At a time everybody thought the much looked forward to the final would turn out to be a try-less affair, there came two surprise tries from either side within the space of six minutes, midway in the second half. But both of them were ‘gifted’ tries.

CH centre three quarter Rukshan Wijesinghe became an instant hero as he covered nearly 30m for a shock try. CH would have regained a morale boosting lead at this stage but Bandara failed with the conversion. Yet, CH managed to reduce the deficit 11-12. But CH’s joy was short lived as CR’s Kumara fired his fifth penalty conversion to make it 15-11.

It looked as if the final is heading for an exciting finish, giving a risky time to heart patients. But CR was blessed with an unexpected try in the 22nd minute.

CH flanker Sumedha Malewana made a blunder by taking the risk of charging down in his own ‘22’. But CR intercepted to send Avantha Hettiarachchi to score under the posts. Kumara added the extra points to make it 22-11 by the 63rd minute of the game.

There were no exciting three quarter moves or power-packed forwards play to keep the spectators on the edges of their seat, but CR played confidently right from the word go. The ‘Red Shirts’ did not rush for conclusions and took their own time to settle down. They had a major portion both in the line outs and scrums.

Many expected CH to play a better game, as they have regularly done against CH in inter-club rugby history. But it was not CH’s day as nothing went right for them, except for scoring the first points.

Managing Director of Chevron Lubricants Lanka, Kishu Gomes was the chief guest and gave away to the glittering Caltex President’s trophy to the champion CR team. Players of the champion teams were awarded special medals by Caltex, the proud sponsors of Sri Lanka rugby.