CR’s Charming Prince scares off Navy demon

by Sajeewa Jayakody

CR and FC overcame the threat of defeat with a penalty in the closing stages to beat Navy 27-25 in their Dialog second round League rugby match at Welisara yesterday, but the Red Shirts would have also breathed a sigh of relief that there was no intimidating half gorilla, half demon mascot at the venue.

Navy, who had such a ‘mascot’ that hovered around their home ground at Welisara in the recent past, had nothing to scare away CR’s Prince Chamara who executed a winning penalty in the dying moments of the game.

There were also no ceremonial men in naval uniform, drummers and trumpeters to lift the spirits of the Navy team who failed to match up to CR resurgence in the end.

Tariq Salih scored the first try for CR in the third minute of the game as the flanker burst through to touch down near the right corner post. Full back Prince Chamara made no mistake with the conversion as the visitors led 7-0..

Six minutes later Naval full back and place kicker Thilina Weerasinghe fired across a 40-metre penalty to reduce the deficit 3-7.

In the 18th minute of play Weerasinghe collecting a long pass scored a superb try under the posts and converted it himself for Navy to take a 10-7 lead.

But three minutes later Prince Chamara scampered through to touch down near the right post and made no mistake with the conversion as CR took the lead 14-10.

In the 24th minute Thilina Weerasinghe, who had a good game scored his second try under the posts and made the conversion as the battle changed course for Navy to lead 17-14 at half time.

But it did not take long for CR second rower Panduka Angammana to burst through and touch down near the right post for Prince Chamara to make the conversion as the visitors led 21-17.

A few minutes later Navy scrum half Richard Dharmapala left the field with a bleeding head injury.

Thilina Weerasinghe brought Navy back into the game with a 45-metre penalty but Prince Chamara stretched the lead 24-20 with another penalty.

In the 20th minute of the second half Yoshitha Rajapaksa sliced through to score a splendid try near the left post to make the scores 25-24 as Weerasinghe missed the conversion.

But CR’s Prince Chamara after missing two penalty kicks fired across a 35-metre penalty to make it 27-25 and seal the result.

Navy had a chance of snatching the result in their favour but Weerasinghe missed a penalty in the final minute of play.

Dinka Peiris refereed.