CR and FC won't have it easy against Police

Ranjeeva SENEVIRATNE

Last year's runners-up CR and FC will face the tough task of overcoming Sri Lanka Police in the curtain-raiser of the Caltex 'A' Division League Rugby Tournament at Longden Place today.

The forte of the Policemen have been their power-packed forwards who should give a torrid time to the famed CR 'eight' today. Nishantha Welagedera, Malith Hettiarachchi, Asela Vithana, Nalin Archarige, Gemunu Indrachapa and T.P. Seneviratne have stood out with their fiery loose play in the last three years and are capable of matching upto CR's forwards Bilal Hassan, Henry Terrence, Ashen Karthelis, Ishan Noor, Danushka Perera and Skipper Dushanth Lewke.

In the set scrums CR's experienced hooker Bilal Hassan should get the better of Police's Malith Hettiarachchi while the line outs should be shared between Police's Vithana and Dinesh Kumara and the CR duo of Noor and Karthelis.

But the Red Shirts boast of a superior back division. They have a fine halves combination in ex-Havelocks player Dilan de Zoysa and Nigel Ratwatte (who has played for Mauritius in International Rugby). Centres Ashan de Costa and Shabbir Mohomad are hard runners who are capable of breaching the Police defence while on the wings they will have the services of that powerful runner Vishvamithra Jayasinghe.

The Policemen will prefer to keep play with their forwards with fly half Harshana Wijeweera's long kicks to touch giving them territorial advantage.

The teams:

Police: Nishantha Welagedera, Malith Hettiarachchi, Sivadason, Dinesh Kumara, Asela Vithana, T.D. Seneviratne, Nalin Archarige, Gemunu Indrachapa, Hashan Gomes and Harshana Wijeweera, Champika Thushara (Captain), Priyantha Ekanayake, Thusitha Samaratilake, Hasaranga, Jeevan Amaradasa.

CR and FC: Henry Terrence, Bilal Hassan, Shehan Dimithri, Ashen Karthelis, Zaheer Jahn, Ishan Noor, Danushka Perera, Dushanth Lewke (Captain), Dilan de Zoysa and Nigel Ratwatte, Vishvamithra Jayasinghe, Ashan de Costa, Shabbir Mohomad, Dinusha Chathuranga, Reza Mubarak.