Air Force enter semi-final by beating Police

Ranjan Anandappa

Air Force beat Police by 11 points (1 try, 2 penalties) to 6 (2 penalties) in a scrappy game in the first quarter-final of the Caltex Knock Out Rugger tournament for the Clifford Cup at Longden Place yesterday.

Neither Police nor the Airmen looked impressive with both sides missing certain scoring opportunities due to lack of cohesive play.

The airmen had fielded two players from Kandy SC former Sri Lanka full back Radhika Hettiarachchi and Navinda Pullikuttiarachchi and Jayantha Ranaweera from CH&FC.

Hettiarachchi put the Airmen in the lead firing across two penalties within a short space of time, while Police SC’s Harshana Wijeweera put over a 40 metre kick to reduce the lead to 3-6.

The only try of the match came when CH and FC scrum half Milinda Jayasinghe punted ahead off a scrum for winger Gayan Iddamalgoda to collect and score an unconverted try to make it 11-3.

Air Force led 11-3 at half time.

After the turn around a penalty put over by Harshana Wijeweera was the only scoring and the Airmen ran out winners by 11 points to 6.

Air Force will now confront defending champions Kandy SC in the first semi-final on July 24 (Saturday) at Nittawela.

D. Nimal refereed.