Sunday Dec 15, 2024
Sunday Dec 15, 2024
Monday, 10 December 2018 01:07 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The usual excitement present in an encounter between CR and Havelocks was missing during last weekend’s clash between the two but Havelocks nevertheless took care of business to remain unbeaten ahead of their meeting with Kandy SC next weekend up in the hills.
Havelocks beat their traditional rivals 31-22 after leading 21-5 at halftime.
The red shirts came close to turning things around in the latter half when the scores stood at 26-22, but the park club erased the idea of a CR win through a Dabare try. Havelocks had the edge in lineouts and three-quarter action. They looked a yard faster and played with purpose.
Havies opened scoring through a Dabare try, following ample support and hard work from Dinuk Amarasinghe. Reza Mubarak added the extra points to create an early 7-0 lead. Dushmantha Priyadhrshana, continuing from his peak form last season, scored his first try to grow the lead to 14-0. Former Peterite Kevin Dixon had a grand game. He covered almost 70 metres before being brought down by a high tackle from Vimukthi Rahula, who was sin-binned for this offence. A Rahule De Silva try for the red shirts offered a glimmer of hopes for the Longdon Place club minutes before halftime. But a Flatney try had Havelocks up 21-5 entering halftime.
Tharinda Ratwatte, who had an ordinary first half, bounced back with an early second half try and conversion to give hope to his CR supporters. But it was short-lived as Dushmantha scored his second try. A Gayan Dilshan try brought the game closer at 26-22 but any hope of CR making a comeback was dashed by Dabare’s second try.
Sanath Martis and his young bloods should be commended for performing so well and remaining unbeaten in their first five encounters when many had written off Havelocks’ chances of making a league run. Now the former Peterite and Royal head coach will put on his thinking cap to turn things around in the hills next weekend. The referee for the game was Priyantha Gunaratne. (SJ)
