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| Sunday, 21 September 2003 |
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CR in final after hard-fought 24/14 win over Navy by LAL GUNESEKERA Defending champions CR & FC were stretched to the limit before beating a gutty Navy outfit by 24 points (1 goal, 1 try, 4 penalties) to 14 (2 goals) after being led 9-14 at half time to enter the final of the club category in the Premier Champions Trophy Knock-Out Rugby Championship at Longden Place yesterday. It was only in the last 15 minutes of play that CR managed first to take the lead (17-14) through a 30-metre penalty deep right by Roshan Pieris and a try by left winger Zulfiqar Halimdeen in the closing stages of the game to win. Upto that time, it was a close game. After CR dominated play in the first 15 minutes, the sailors took control and punched holes in their defence. CR went into the lead first through a 20-metre penalty by Pieris in the third minute. In the 15th minute, Navy's right winger Niroshan chipped ahead, collected to score under the posts and Ranatunga added the extra points. Five minutes later, Pieris, fired across another simple 22-metre penalty for CR to reduce the lead. In the 36th minute, Niroshan again shifting position made a great break for another sailor to go over. With Ranatunga again converting, Navy led 14-6, but CR reduced the lead further just before "lemons" through a penalty by Pieris - his third. After the "turn around", Jayasinghe the CR second-rower helped his side to draw equal, but Pieris missed the conversion. This was in the fifth minute, and then came Pieris' fourth penalty and Halimdeen's try for CR to win and enter Saturday's final under lights at the Sugathadasa Stadium. Nizam Jamaldeen refereed. Wesley entered the final of the Schools under-19 category having an easy 39 points (2 goals, 5 tries) to 17 (2 goals, 1 penalty) win over Science College after leading 24-0 at half time. Wesley entered their second final in the schools category - under-17 defeating Lumbini by 46 points (3 goals, 5 tries). S. Thomas' entered the final of the under-15 category beating Trinity 17 points (1 goal, 2 tries) to nil. Isipatana beat Royal 3-2 on penalty kicks to enter the final of the under-13 category. Today's semi-final line-up is as follows: Club - Havelocks vs Army at 5 p.m. Underr-19 - Isipatana vs S. Thomas' at 4 p.m. Under-17 - Trinity vs Zahira at 3 p.m., Under-15- Isipatana vs Dharmaraja at 2 p.m., Under-13 - Kingswood vs Carey at 1.30 p.m. All finals on Saturday will be worked off at the Sugathadasa Stadium. |
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