CR & FC registered their second victory of the season beating CH & FC by 45-7 points in their Dialog Rugby League 2015/16 week 3 encounter at Race Course grounds on Friday evening.
CR & FC had a mixed bag of a start to their season by beating Army SC in the opener but losing to Havelock SC last week meanwhile CH & FC lost heavily at the hands of Kandy SC & Police SC respectively.
On a chilly and overcast evening, CR & FC starting fly-half Naleen Kumara kicked-off the game. Both teams showed hesitancy to settle down as they made few basic handling errors early on.
The hosts’, CH & FC received a 40-meter penalty in the 7th minute but their most-experienced player Eranda Weerakkody failed to convert it into points.
After a series of penalties inside the CH 22’ territory, CR & FC finally scored their first try in the 15th minute when their skipper Ishan Noor took a quick tap and barged over the big white line. Naleen Kumara missed the conversion. (CR 05 – CH 00)
The inexperienced back-line of CH & FC botched under pressure due to lack of communication which resulted in CR center Kanchana Ramanayake kicking and chasing a loose ball to score his first try for the evening in the 19th minute. Kumara added the extra points. (CR 12 – CH 00)
Even though CR was controlling the game they did not build up try-scoring phases to add some speed and intensity into the game. Finally in the 34th minute, a dangerous-looking CR & FC backline worked-off a set-move to ensure winger Kavindu Perera was untouched while scoring his first try of the match. Kumara bisected the posts to add the extra points. (CR 19 – CH 00)
Eranda Weerakkody had a forgettable day with his left-boot as he missed two penalty kicks within 3 minutes of play with the half-time break approaching. The unstructured play by CR & FC throughout the first-half finally helped their oldest rival to score their first try of the season when winger Danuka Rathnayake dived on a loose ball at the stroke of half-time whistle. Fly-half Janith Chandimal converted as the players went into a 10-minute break.
Half Time: CR & FC 19 – CH & FC 07
After lemons, Eranda Weerakkody restarted the game. Coach Imthi Marikkar made a tactical change of bringing in Kavindu De Costa from the bench into the first five-eighth position and he immediately made an impact by opening up a gap in CH defense to let Kanchana Ramanayake run through a perfect angle and score their bonus-point securing try after an excellent sprint. Ramanayake converted his own try. (CR 26 – CH 07)
CH & FC flanker Viraj Hewage was yellow-carded for continuous foul play and the one-man advantage helped the visitors score their 5th try through winger Kavindu Perera in the 53rd minute of the match. Kanchana added the extra points excellently. (CR 33 – CH 07)
Both teams injected fresh legs in the final quarter to provide some momentum into a dull game which had countless number of stoppages due to the scrappiness of play. CR & FC made many unforced errors against the weakest side of the league, which would be costly for them against a much-better conditioned unit in the coming weeks.
Former Peterite Frank Roger was the 2nd player of the match from CH & FC to get sin-binned which eventually made way for hooker Arun Kumar to barge over and score near the right-corner flag with only 10 minutes left in the game clock. Ramanayake missed the conversion.
(CR 38 – CH 07)
CR & FC would have been extremely disappointed in not being able to score more tries but would have been satisfied with the work rate of number 8 Jeson Dissanayake. He ended the game with a superb try when he broke-off from the back of a 5-meter scrum and scored the 7th CR try of the match. Kavindu De Costa added the extra points.
Full Time: CR & FC 45 (7T, 5C) – CH & FC 07 (1T,1C)
Referee – Irshad Cader
ThePapare Man of the Match – Kanchana Ramanayake (CR & FC)
CR & FC head coach Imthi Marikkar shared his views with ThePapare.com exclusively after the match, “We should have done way better than that. Need to regroup and play well in the coming matches.”
Points Scorers
CR & FC – Kanchana Ramanayake 14 points (2 tries, 2 conversions), Kavindu Perera 10 points (2 tries), Arun Kumar 5 points (1 try), Ishan Noor 5 points (1 try), Jeson Dissanayake 5 points (1 try), Naleen Kumara 4 points (2 conversions), Kavindu De Costa 2 points (1 conversion)
CH & FC – Danuka Rathnayake 5 points (1 try), Janith Chandimal 2 points (1 conversion)
