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CR made its way to final beating Havies 20-5 Carlsberg trophy 'A' Division Champions CR and FC qualified for the President's Trophy knock out finals on Saturday when they recorded a hard fought 20 points (1 goal, 2 tries 1 penalty) to 5 (1 try) win over a lacklustre Havelocks XV in their semi final at Longden Place yesterday. In a match which the Red Shirts dished out a red hot game of attacking rugby, Havelocks full back Dexter Fonseka who steered his club to the semis with his kicking boots over Army last week, turned out to be a pale shadow of his former self, as five successive spot kicks bungled by him ultimately paid put to their chances of entering Saturday's final. CR though had the better of the exchanges in both halves, their fly half Sajith Mallikarachchi was guilty of dropping several passes and his selfish style of play in trying to go solo deprived the champions of adding more points to their final scoreline. However players of the calibre of flanker Alfred Hensman, No. 8 Nalin Wijegunawardena, Samantha de Saram and half ruck and skipper Champika Nishantha stood out for the red shirts with their hefty forwards always being in the thick of everything but the shoddy display of ball handling of the outsides prevented CR from running away with the match. For the winners fullback Nalaka Weerakkody put over a 30 metre penalty in the 13th minute whilst Hensman and Wijegunawardena both had similar touch downs off five and 10 metre shorttaps which ended in two push over tries with Weerakkody converting one of the tries to put the Longden Place club at a 15-0 advantage at the breather. During the second half CR's only scoring was done in the 35th minute when winger Kishdu Musafer planted their third try following the ball being worked through the line after they had won a line out in the Havies territory with Weerakkody fluffing the conversion as CR's final score shot to 20 points. For the losers their only scoring in the match was done by centre Haren Perera, who breezed through a dismayed CR defence after a superb twenty five metre sprint but Dexter Fonseka who was completely off-colour with his boots missed the conversion to allow the Red Shirts to rightfully earn their berth in the finals. Commonwealth
Games - Malaysia The Minister of Sports S. B. Dissanayake has decided to axe two members from the Commonwealth Games bound squash team. This decision was taken as there were many representations made alleging the selections were not free and fair. "We have no time to select a fresh team and therefore we will only field Saman Tillekeratne who has the best international ranking "the Minister said at the National Sports Festival Media briefing. "We have found out that Duminda Wijedasa has been discriminated." The Ministry has decided to re-include the 400 x 4 Relay team for the Commonwealth games. This omission was highlighted in 'The Island'. . "The National Selectors pointed out that though the team won a silver at the recently concluded ATF in Japan the team was not good enough for the Commonwealth Games. The selectors felt 9% of credit should go to Sugath who played a vital role in winning the Bronze. They said that is the main reason for axing the relay team. "The Minister explained. He also said that Amateur Athletic Association's the officials get activated only when there is a foreign tour. They did not even bother to train (baton changes) this relay team. They always expect the Ministry to fund them for tours" he said. It was also disclosed that Derwin Perera and Anura Bandara will act as the chief coach and deputy coach while N.A.T. Jayasinghe is the manager. "We are pinning our hopes on the Rifle Shooters, Cricketers, Netballers and Sugath Tillakaratne to win medals at the Commonwealth Games," he said. It was disclosed that the National Sports Festival preliminary round had nearly two hundred thousand competitors in all major sports and the final round to be worked off on August 20, 21 and 22 will see 1200 athletes in action. Commenting on the Cycling crisis where two bodies are seeking legality he said after gaining advise from the Attorney General's office an Interim Board will be appointed with members from both bodies. He charged that the former CFSL officials had pruned the voting rights of many clubs and had tried to evade elections. "Anyway I do not recognise both bodies" he said. Airing his views on the controversial inclusion of Promodaya Wickramasinghe to the England tour he said his performance had proved the critics wrong. "Once again the selectors were on the right track" he said. "Roshan Mahanama was asked to play in the Mercantile matches but he refused," he added. "This matter never went to the President," he stressed. He also disclosed that Olympic poolist Mahesh Perera's grant has been suspended since he is not in training. Coach Sunil Gunawardane said Mahesh was nursing an injury and would run in the festival. Deputy Minister of Finance G. L. Peiris and Speaker K. B. Ratnayake will be the special invitees for the Festival. Kandy
all out to enter final Kandy Sports Club brimming with confidence will go out as favourites in today's semi final against CH and FC in President's Trophy knockout tournament at Longden Place. CH and FC will be at full strength to take sweet revenge from the Kandy team. The kick off is scheduled for 5.00 p.m. Kandy after a win over Air Force in the quarter-final are determined to a reserve a berth in August 23 final. They are a well balanced out fit and are to make few changes. The side has no injury problems. Their forwards have the edge over their rivals who lost twice in the league tournament. Asoka Jayasena and Priyantha Ekanayake will lead the forwards and use all their experience to sail them to victory. The three quarters will have a testing time against the well organised CH back division. On the other hand CH will have a uphill task to overrun their rivals. Their main concern will be to find a accurate place kicker which caused them many problems in earlier games. But this will be their last chance and should put up a good show if they are to succeed. They too are hoping to make few changes from the side which defeated Petersons. The final fifteen will be known prior to the match. A good game of rugby is expected from both sides. |
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