Air Force Shot Down by CR

The much awaited Caltex League is finally upon us. Saturday 3rd May saw the red shirts beat Air Force by 29 points (2 Goals, 3 Tries) to 3 (1 Penalty) at Longden Place. After months of pre-season training and hard work it was down to the players to perform in the center. The red shirts were never seriously challenged by the airmen this time round. Last season’s game at Ratmalana was much tougher even though the winning margin was higher. On Saturday the airmen displayed dogged defense but lacked any coordinated attacking moves and were slower than the red shirts.

CR put the fist points on board by scoring near the left corner flag. Dave Anand,last years Kingswood College fly half touched down after a well coordinated that started near the 50 meter line. Air Force’s only scoring opportunity came soon after with Fly Half, Chanaka Chandimal firing across a 35 meter penalty. Niroshan Karunanayake, the debutant center scored one of his two tries followed by the die hard red shirt Pavi. Dev Anand converted one of the tries and that gave CR a 14 point lead at half time. CR 17 Air Force 3 at the lemons.

In the 28th minute of the second half, Dushantha Lewke barged over for an unconverted try. CR 22 Air Force 3. At this point CR were running hard and putting the airmen under tremendous pressure. Prop Saumya Silva’s neck tackle saw him being sin binned by the referee and the CR players made the numbers count by running the ball at every opportunity. However the airmen did well to hold the CR attack to just one goal during this time. Center, Karunayake made his second touch down of the game during this period and Mohammed Sheriff made no mistake with the conversion and the score stayed that way until full time.

The positives for the red shorts were their bench strength and the agility and speed of the new crop players and this was evident by the fact that 4 out of the 5 tries were scored by players playing their first match for the red shirts. Niroshan Karunanayake (2), Dave Anand (1) and Dushantha Lewke (1). Next game will be on 9th May, 2008 against Police at Longden place. Kick off at 4.30 PM.