CR versus Air Force warps up at 36 – 13 with CR reaching the much awaited bonus point easily.
For those who want to spend an evening of intense rugby the Air Force versus CR might have not been the best pick, but for those who had been supporting CR or wanted to know the latest about the club season it was the right place to be. Air Force and CR had different motives towards the game. For Air Force it’s not the victory that counts. They are a team who plays with lot of passion and heart in the game without any support from foreign players. CR had the upper hand being an established club who take the games very seriously. Their reach was to move ahead in the club season and not simply win the game but gain a bonus point along with the victory.
With much more than a victory in mind CR left absolutely no space for Air Force from the start of the game. As the pressure rose against Air Force, all they could score is one penalty in the first half while CR reached their goal of 24 points.
CR’s score of 24 points in the first half comprised of four tries of which two included successful conversions. Pamodya Mekalanda was the first to score a try for CR and Rizah Mubarak added the extra points through the uprights. Following Dilanka Perera, Mushin Faleel and Vala Lafaele touched down in succession. Due to strong winds, the reliable Rizah was only able to convert Mushin Faleel’s try.
On the board for the Sri Lanka Air Force at that point was the solitary name of Asanka Perara who slotted in the a penalty in the 22nd minute of the first quarter.
Moving on to the second quarter CR was belligerent with Air Force 19 points behind and CR having pocketed the bonus point already, gave the full bench a run. However this left it open for the Air force who went on to scoring two tries in the dying moments of the second half.
The first try in the second half was once again from CR where Faleel Mushin crossed to touch down easily after a scrum 20 meters away from the try line. The conversion was obvious. Rizah added the points easily reaching a total of 31 marks. The final try was by Dimitri Wijethunga of the CR. This try was interesting as Dimitri moved to the try line in the midst of two Air Force players in conversation as to whom each of them were to defend and scored the try leaving Air Force somewhat bewildered.
Soon afterwards CR opted to relaxing and airing all their players from which Air Force took their cue and motivated themselves to score a few tries. Taking the opportunity around 30 meters to the try line, Nadheesh Perera of Sri Lanka Air Force with a short kick moving through the defenses passed on to Asanka Perera for Air Forces’ first try in the game. Fuelled by this last minute scoring CR turned aggressive which backfired. Vala Lafaele was sent back with a yellow card warning within 5 minute to end the game. Unfortunately the penalty that ensued was almost 50 meters away which had no probability in making with the tough winds. Yet the high-spirited blues were able to squeeze in one last try to their score. Dilshan Kalaniyagoda scored for the Air Force with 2 minutes before the final whistle.
“We didn’t want to leave any space. All the effort was put together to bring that bonus point into the club” stated the head coach of CR, Tavita Tulagaese “With the bonus point obtained, we were willing to experiment with some new players and different combinations. So it’s not possible to expect a best performance in such circumstances, Tavita Tulagaese lamented defending CR’s performance in the second quarter
“We weren’t trying to finish the game; instead we wanted to relax a little in the second half. As a matter of fact we gave everyone in the bench an opportunity. We were giving lot of opportunities today and it’s a great way to gear up for the second round, CR head coach added in ThePapare.com’ post match interview.
