Army fight back to beat Police by 33/27

Thushan JAYASURIYA

A superb second half rally by Sri Lanka Army helped them to beat Police Sports Club by 33 points (four goals, one try) to 27 points ( two goals, two tries and penalty) to remain in fourth position in their Dialog ‘A’ division league rugby match played at Police Park yesterday after trailing by 7 – 10 at the breather.

The first half was a scrappy affair with both teams being finding it difficult to penetrate each others defence and the first scoring effort came through a 25 metre penalty by Police’s Sam Aolole which gave them a slender 3 – 0 lead.

Prop Nishantha Kothelawela opened the account for Sri Lanka Army scoring a try which was successfully converted by Upali Wickramasinghe. ( Army 7 – 3 ). Prop T.Sivanandan touched down for Police with Sam Aolele adding extra points (Police 10 – 07) .

Soon after the resumption, Army snatched back the lead through an unconverted try by Winger Kunaga Steve by the corner flag (Army 12 – 10 ) .Police took the lead once again through a try by Number Eight Batiratu William which was converted by Sam Aolele to make it 17 – 12 in Polices favour.

They went ahead further through an unconverted try by Sam Aolele to make it 22 - 12.

The soldiers reduced the deficit through a try by Epi Kokonosiga with Upali Wickramasinghe adding the extra points and the few minutes later, they grabbed the lead through a try by lock forward Sarath Kumara with Upali Wickramasinghe making no mistake with the conversion and Army led 26 - 22.

Ten minutes before the final whistle Scrum Half Upali Wickramasinghe scored a try for the Army and added the extra points himself to give them a comfortable 33 - 22 lead.

The Policemen fought back gallantly and scored an unconverted try through former CR and Sri Lanka skipper Dushanth Lewke to make it 33 - 27 in favour of Army at the final whistle.

Paul Mackey refereed