SPORTS CH overcome Soldiers by a whisker
CH&FC scraped through to complete a close 18-17 win against Army SC, who looked threatening and dominant in their SLR Nippon Paint Club Rugby League game played at Panagoda yesterday.
CH, a team slotted to play in the Cup segment, recorded their fifth win with a tally of two tries, a conversion and two penalties which would place them as the fourth best team among the competing eight. They led the halftime by a comfortable 7-3. Army, who showed their intensions clear, scored from two converted tries and a penalty, but lost by a thin one point, which would give them a bonus point.
The game progressed without either teams failing to make a breakthrough until Anjula Hettiarachchi was shown a yellow card in the eighth minute. Despite this, the game moved on until Army earned a penalty in the 17th minute, to which flyhalf Ashan Bandara successfully responded to put his team ahead by 3-0.
With both teams failing to make any headway, the Solders lost their momentum briefly in the 37th minute, to which CH responded with a try off prop Prasath Madushanka. With the conversion of fullback Hirusha Nethmina, they went into the halftime break with a 7-3 lead.
Soon after the resumption CH was rewarded with a penalty, which allowed them to expand the lead to 10-3 through Nethmina’s kick. But the Soldiers made inroads which flummoxed CH completely, and eventually succeeded by threequarter Nalaka Maduranga going over for a try. With
Bandara’s conversion, Army equalised 10-10 by the 48th minute.
CH were compelled to play with 14 men from the 53rd minute, after Hettiarachchi was shown his second yellow card of the game, which converted into a red card. Yet the visitors managed to force the Soldiers to concede a penalty in the 57th minute, which gave them the liberty of regaining the lead by 13-10 after Nethmina’s conversion.
However, CH was forced into a rude shock when the Soldiers made a surprise attack in the 65th minute of the game that put them ahead by 17-13, after centre Kaveen Perera’s try and flanker Lakshan Jayawickrama’s conversion. Yet, through their own mishap the Soldiers gave away the opportunity for prop Nirosh Perera to score an unconverted try and have CH ahead by 18-17, which remained as the final score.