Police and CH in grudge battle today

Ranjeeva SENEVIRATNE

The confrontations between the Colombo Hockey and Football Club and Police Sports Club have always been close tussles for supremacy and another thriller is on the cards today when these two teams clash in the Caltex 'A' Division return rugby match for the Plate Championship at Police Park today.

CH and FC despite having the services of two foreigners - No 8 Driu Qoro and centre Iliesa Salusalu have failed to live upto expectations and will have to come up with a much better performance if they hope to overcome the policemen and stay in contention for the Plate Championship. The exodus of their key players to other clubs has resulted in the Maitland Crescent club fielding a young side with a solitary victory over Sri Lanka Army (43-5) in the first round.

In contrast the policemen have notched up two victories over CR and FC (11-10) and CH and FC (17-13) and have gone down fighting in most of the other matches - 11-22 against Kandy SC, 14-20 against Navy, 12-18 against Air Force, Havelocks (7-18) and Army (13-27).

The forte of the policemen have been their power-packed forwards skipper T.D. Seneviratne has been a source of inspiration to his team-mates with his fiery loose play and has been ably supported by Nishantha Welagedara, Malith Hettiarachchi, Sivadasan, Romesh Archarige and Gemunu Indrachapa and the Police 'eight' should outplay their counterparts in the loose.

CH and FC will rely on their back division to deliver the goods. They have an experienced halves combination in Tuan Shamrock and Prasad Perera while Fijian Iliesa Salusalu, Gayan Liyanage and skipper Lakala Perera are hard runners who look capable of breaching the police defence.

The teams:

POLICE - Nishantha Welagedera, Malith Hettiarachchi, Sivadasan, Romesh Archarige, Dinesh Kumara, M. Rizwie, T.D. Seneviratne (Captain), Gemunu Indrachapa, Mohamed Rizwan and Anjula Wijeratne, Harshana Wijeweera, Priyantha Ekanayake, Viraj Devasurendra, Chanaka Fonseka and Hashan Gomes.

CH AND FC - Shane Sammandaperuma, Parakrama Ratnayake, Mohamed Rifkan, Chanaka Bandara, Dilanka Gunatilleke, Niroshan Ekanayake, Dilan Kennedy, Driu Qoro, Tuan Shamrock and Prasad Perera, Indika Udayakumara, Iliesa Salusalu, Gayan Liyanage, Lakala Perera (Captain), Indika Wickramanayake or Arfath Meedin.