CR face tough task against Police today

By Ranjeeva Seneviratne

The reigning President’s Trophy champions CR and FC after being beaten by Kandy SC (15-18) and being held to a 15-all draw by CH and FC have the tough task of overcoming Sri Lanka Police in their Caltex ‘A’ Division League rugby match at Police Park today.

The Policemen went down to Havelocks last week but should give the Red Shirts a close run today as they always give of their best when playing on their home grounds.

Up front a terrific tussle for supremacy can be expected with the power packed CR forwards Shamil Mohamed, Anuja Perera, Kasun de Silva, Pavithra Fernando, Dharmathillake and Dushanth Lewke being confronted by equally good forwards in Charaka Hewawasam, Malith Hettiarachchi, Pradeep Wilson, Gemunu Indrachapa, Ashan Dias and skipper Nilusha Fernando.

In the set scrums Sri Lanka hooker Anuja Perera of CR should get the better of his vis-a-vis Malith Hettiarachchi while in the line-outs the Police trio of Pradeep Wilson, Nalin Archarige and Ashan Dias have the edge over the CR duo of Gayan Fernando and Dharmatilleke.

The Red Shirts will hope that their new halves combination of Suranga Pushpakumara and Ashan de Costa will click today as they have two hard running centres in Lasintha de Costa and Senthil Kumar while on the wings they have the services of that powerful runner Dinesh Kumara. CR will missed the services of Sri Lanka scrum half Amjad Buksh and full back Mohamed Sheriff both of whom are on the injured list.

The Policemen will be full strength today with the return of place kicker Harshana Wijeweera who will play as a centre alongside Ranjith Kumara with Danushka Pubudu occupying the pivotal fly-half berth.

The teams:

CR and FC: Shamil Mohamed (captain), Anuja Perera, Navin Wijetunga, Anuradha Dharmatilleke, Gayan Fernando, Kasun de Silva, Pavithra Fernando, Dushanth Lewke, Suranga Pushpakumara and Ashan de Costa, Dinesh Kumara, Lasintha de Costa, Senthil Kumar, Ravindra Wekadapola, Reza Mubarak.

Police: Charaka Hewawasam, Malith Hettiarachchi, Sivadasan, Nalin Archarige, Ashan Dias, Gemunu Indrachapa, Nilusha Fernando (Captain), Pradeep Wilson, Milinda Bandara and Danushka Pubudu, Asith Nilanga, Harshana Wijeweera, Ranjith Kumara, Sahan Hettiarachchi, Jeevan Amaradasa.