CR & FC hung on to an early lead to hold off a late Police surge to win the final game in the 1st round of the Dialog Club Rugby League 31-27
CR has already proven to be a pretty tight team who scores early on and Police on the other hand have been consistent in their effort. The play between the two teams was an exact portrayal of how they’ve fared this season. Taking on from the kick off the first to score was CR when the scrum was penalized with a penalty to gain the 3 -0 lead in the game when Rizah Mubarak of CR got right between the uprights.
Just a few minutes later the Sri Lanka Police got the opportunity to settle the scores with another penalty. Apisaia at Number 23 kicked through settling the scores at 3 -3 even though CR did not seem satisfied about the second penalty. Continuing CR kept pushing the ball towards the try line and was once again the winner of another penalty within the first few minutes of the game. Police was penalized for stepping on the ruck and this made the overall score 6-3 with the advantage to CR.
Both the teams pushed hard and next in CR pushing the line forward for their advantage came onto an overhead pass to number 8, Nissan Atui. Who picked the ball mid-air but was dragged down by Shanka Harichandra of Police. Recovering the ball immediatly was Rahul De Silva from CR. With his pass to the corner the maul moved to the edge of the try line. Infringement later and referee’s whistle went off for another penalty to CR. A clean strike made CR reach 9 – 3
Police continued to fight hard for their first try. Taking the ball from the 4th penalty of the game Police was at a very strong position. A couple of passes from 13 to 12 and finally to 21 the Police ruck was just couple of meters away from the try line. Once again as they were pushing hard; CR’s fault brought in a penalty. The angle was difficult and Police missed a good opportunity to put numbers on the board. Turning the game soon afterwards CR had a few quick passes from 13 to 19 and finally Faleel Mushin got the ball into the hands of Dushanth Lewke enabling the former skipper to go over for the first try in the game. Try went unconverted but CR remained in the lead by 11 points. 14 – 3.
Soon after kick off from the CR’s try Police was motored forward but a missed pass handed the ball to Nissai of CR. A couple of phases later the ball landed in the hands of Lafaele Vaa who he carried the ball for 50 meters scoring the second try for CR. Riazh took his time and made no mistake taking the CR & FC to 21 points to Police’s 3.
Just before the half time, Police was able to score their most awaited try. Nasoni Rocobiau at number 12 for Police found an overlap in the CR defense and made through for almost 75 meters uninterrupted. Rizah’s valiant attempt to tackle him was dodged and Rocobiau went over. The conversion was clean and Police went into half time 21-10.
Half time 21 – 10
The first to score in the second half was CR. Dodging Police defenses speedster Vishwamithra Jayasinghe made a 50 meter dash with the Police center in hot pursuit but Jayasinghe was too fast for him and went over putting more numbers on the board for CR. Conversion was successful and CR elongated the lead to 28-10
Police called in all their stops fighting hard at this point of the game. To their advantage Prabath for CR was given a yellow card and taking advantage of the reduced number a Police went after their second try. A long kick into opposition territory and a line out later, number 13 and 12 combined passed through Hasan Gomez and the try was delivered by Udara Gayan. Try went unconverted but Police closed the gap 28-15.
The final for CR came in with another penalty in the last 20 minutes of the game but Sri Lanka Police had not given up the fight. With the score reading 31-15 and an expected CR victory, Police stormed back with one last try to almost undo the red shirts. In the last 10 minutes of the game Lahiru Gunsinghe and Thushara Chamilka combined to score for the Police yet again. Thushara slotted in a difficult conversion was a extremely unexpected. A knock-on and pass close to the try line saw Thushara taking everyone by surprise deceiving CR players and scoring the final 7 points of the game. At 31 – 27 the Police effort was excellent but not good enough to turn the game over.
Full time 31 – 27
