CH and FC have the edge over Havelocks

Ranjeeva SENEVIRATNE

CH and FC which scored a smashing 39-15 win over Police in the curtain-raiser of the Caltex ‘A’ Division League Rugby Tournament have the edge over Havelocks Sports Club when they clash at Maitland Crescent today.

The park club which lost to Army by the staggering margin of 0-33 have been training hard during the last few days and are confident of putting up a much better display to give the formidable CH and FC a close run.

CH and FC have made one change. They have brought in reliable place kicker Sajith Bandara to the last line of defence replacing Milinda Jayasinghe while Havelocks will miss the services of Sri Lanka hooker Rajiv Perera whose place will be taken by former Peterite hooker Roshan Fonseka.

Up front a close tussle for supremacy can be expected with CH’s power-packed forwards Ranaweera, Ranatunga, Dinesh Sanjeewa, Sharo Fernando Senarath and Achala Perera being confronted by equally good forwards in Hassen, Sandaruvan, Amarasinghe, Dissanayake, Jayasena and Delpechitra.

In the set scrums CH hooker Achala Perera should get the better of his vis-a-vis Fonseka while the line outs should be shared by the CH duo of Sanjeewa and Sandun Kumara and Havelocks’ Amarasinghe and Jayasena.

With a superior back division CH should make the maximum use of the possession which comes their way.

Their halves combination of Shamrock and Mallikarachchi clicked last week while centres Hettiarachchi and Fernando are hard runners who are capable of piercing the Havelocks defence while on the wings they have the services of that powerful runner Lakala Perera who had an excellent game last week.

It is left to be seen how the park club’s back division will fare today as they have lost the services of three key players - Samantha Lakshan, Dilip Methruwan and Nuwan Hettiarachchi.

Last year Havelocks won the first round game by 19-11 while CH triumphed by 29-10 in the return match at Maitland Crescent.

CH and FC - Jayantha Ranaweera, Achala Perera (captain), Sathya Ranatunge, Dinesh Sanjeewa, Sandun Kumara, Wasamba Senarath, Sharo Fernando, Dilanka Wijesekera, Tuan Shamrock and Sajith Mallikarachchi, Ajith Upawansa, Avantha Hettiarachchi, Rushika Fernando, Lakala Perera, Sajith Bandara.

Havelocks - Shafi Hassen, Roshan Fonseka, Danushka Sandaruwan, Chathuranga Amarasinghe (captain), C. Bandara, Poornaka Delpechitra, S.B. Dissanayake, Kavinda Jayasena, Dilan de Zoysa and Harsha Weerakkody, Chanaka Fonseka, Ruwan Suranga, Nuwan Samith, Sumith Jagoda, Zakir Badurdeen.