Police struggle to settle Navy
by Ranjan Anandappa
|
The forwards of Police and Navy compete for the ball in
their League rugby match at Police Park yesterday (Picture
by Thilak Perera)
|
Police after going through a few anxious moments pulled off a close
16 points (one goal, three penalties) to 11 (one try, two penalties) win
over Navy in their Dialog inter club League rugby encounter played at
Police Park yesterday.
The winners led 10-6 at the breather.
Police took the lead in the fifth minute of the match when Mohammed
Sheriff masterminded a move evading several defenders to send Chula
Susantha to touch down for Reza Raifudeen to make an easy conversion.
Sheriff made the difference for the Police playing a key role in
attack and defence. Police stretched their lead with a penalty put over
by Raifudeen but Navy reduced the deficit when Thilina Weerasinghe fired
over two consecutive penalties.
Police with a 10-6 lead at the half way mark started off well adding
three more points through a Raifudeen penalty. For Navy Thilina
Weerasinghe missed a relatively easy penalty to deprive Navy of reducing
the gap.
Navy who had got their act together pressurised Police in no
uncertain terms and Suranga Pushpakumara touched down for an unconverted
try.
With the scores 13-11in favour of Police, Riza Mubarak this time
taking over the kicking process made no mistake with a straight forward
penalty .
Referee. Priyantha Gunaratne |
