Nuwan kicks Havelocks to win over CH & FC

Ranjeeva SENEVIRATNE

A superb display of place kicking by Sri Lanka youth player Nuwan Hettiarachchi enabled Havelocks Sports Club to beat CH and FC by 19 points (one goal, four penalties) to 11 (one try, one penalty, one drop goal) in their Caltex ‘A’ Division League rugby match played at Havelock Park yesterday after leading 6-3 at the breather.

Former Rajan full back Hettiarachchi (who played for the Sri Lanka under 20 team in the Youth Rugby Asiad in Brunei last year) fired across four penalties and converted the solitary try scored by the park club which gave him a personal tally of 14 points to emerge as the Havelocks’ hero yesterday.

The Park club’s forwards came up with a fiery display to outplay their counterparts in the loose. No 8 Rajiv Ganapathy was a source of inspiration to his team-mates with his fiery loose play and was ably supported by Shafi Hassen, Rajiv Perera, Mohamed Izzadeen, Sharo Fernando and Ravi Jayasuriya.

They also won a major share of the line outs with the duo of Jayasena and Izzadeen having the edge over CH’s Dinesh Sanjeewa and Wasamba Senarath.

However in the set scrums Sri Lanka hooker Achala Perera of CH got the better of his vis-a-vis Rajiv Perera.

Sri Lanka sevens player Wasim Thajudeen who played in the pivotal fly half position gave the park club territorial advantage with his booming kicks to touch.

CH and FC surged into the lead in the 13th minute when Sajith Bandara put over a 25 metre penalty. Five minutes later Havelocks full back Nuwan Hettiarachchi fired across a 20 metre penalty to make it 3-all and in the 25th minute he made no mistake with a 25 metre penalty to give Havelocks a 6-3 lead at ‘lemons’.

In the 3rd minute after resumption CH snatched the lead when they won a scrum 20 metres away from the Havelocks goal line and scrum half Tuan Shamrock made a break on the blind side and slung out pass to lock forward Dinesh Sanjeewa who fell over for an unconverted try by the left corner flag and CH led 8-6.

In the 17th minute of the second half off a second phase move Havelocks winger Zakir Badurdeen burst through to touch down by the left corner flag.

Full back Nuwan Hettiarachchi made a spectacular conversion to make it 13-8 in favour of Havelocks.

Thirteen minutes later Nuwan Hettiarachchi fired across a 30 metre penalty from a difficult angle and Havelocks led 16-8. In the 33rd minute Havelocks were awarded a 40 metre penalty and Nuwan Hettiarachchi who took the kick sent the ball sailing over the cross bar to put the issue beyond doubt as Havelocks led 19-8.

Three minutes later CH’s substitute fly half Omar Hassan dropped a peach of a goal from 40 metres out to make it 19-11 at the final whistle.

Referee - Nizam Jamaldeen