Havies invade CR domain

by Callistus Davy

Havelocks moved up one more step in their push to grab the spotlight in their centenary year but conspicuously many of their fans missed witnessing a smashing of CR and FC by 34 points to 18 in a first round Dialog inter club League rugby match at Longden Place yesterday.

The score-line may not project to what extent Havelocks dominated CR and FC, but there was certainly more tries for the taking for the Park Club players.

Led by an inspirational skipper and flying winger Sandun Herath, Havelocks played as if they may be one of the teams that can benefit immensely from the absence of foreign stars as their crop of young players combined with the experienced brand names to produce a spectacle of ball movement despite wet underfoot conditions.

Scoring three tries in patches, there was no way CR could have stopped Havelocks from running the ball at will.

The Red Shirts tried the same but apart from one occasion when their backs covered nearly half the field mid-way in the second half, they were cornered by a barrage of Havelocks defenders.

Overall CR had just a single fleeting moment in the opening minutes of the game when their scrum half Kavindu de Costa snatched the ball from the base of the scrum and sprinted some 40 metres to score after his opposite number Rahul de Silva slipped up with possession.

But Havelocks had the ball and the match well in control to strangle CR as they scored four tries starting with Number Eight Sudharshan Muthuthantri making the first break to send hooker Prasad Madushanka scoring.

Fly half Niroshan Fernando sneaked through to score the second try for Havelocks to take a 17-8 half time lead and the outcome of the contest was a foregone conclusion when Herath with a slicing run from mid-field out-smarted the CR defence to score in what was easily the best moment of the match ten minutes into the second half.

The tirelessly hardworking Muthuthantri set up the fourth try for Havelocks as he crashed through on the blind side for Rahul de Silva to put the finishing touch.

Havelocks could not have asked for a better kicking show from full-back Rimzie Jamaldeen who converted all four tries from different angles and put over two penalties taking his contribution to 14 points and in all probability turning into a match-winning force.

The match was also not devoid of its physical confrontations out of play that resulted in CR fly half Ashan de Costa spending time in the sin-bin which only added to his team’s wretched performance save two consolation tries by flanker Sasanka Ariyaratne and centre Kanchana Ramanayake which were never enough to threaten Havelocks.