Dark horse Police races past Havies to clinch Clifford Cup

By A Special Sports Correspondent

Police Sports Club had one of their grandest displays in rugby in recent years when they demolished a spirited challenge by Havelocks Sports Club before winning the coveted Clifford Cup knockout tournament with a 19-12 win at Race Course on Saturday (March 9.

A fair crowd turned out to cheer both teams at the final after keeping the interest going in the tournament fell on Police and Havelocks after a pullout by Kandy SC and a pathetic show by League champions CR&FC in the Clifford Cup Competition. Police underscored that they were the dark horse in the tournament and turned the tables on the fancied Havelocks SC team by outscoring their opponents by three tries to two. The winners collected their points through three tries and two conversions while Havies responded with two tries and a conversion. For the record a win by police at the Clifford Cup was seen after 33 years with the cops having last won this piece of silverware in 1991. Police were the losing finalists of the Clifford Cup knockout tournament in 2015.

The policemen led by lock Mohan Wimalaratne did well to dominate both halves of the game, but they did quite well to score an unconverted try in the first half and keep Havies quiet. The Police defence was solid in the first half and they gave away lesser penalties than their opponents. The first half try for Police came off the efforts of centre Hirantha Perera who touched down after a powerful run. He was equally solid in defence. The other player who stood out for Police was kicker Prince Chamara.

Havies only settled down to play attacking rugby in the second half and managed to breach the Police goal line twice during that period. But Police defended their goal line stubbornly and only saw a crack opening up in their defence as late as the 70th minute of the game. Havies’ player Mushin Faleel spotted a gap in the police defence and sped through to touch down and put the first points on the board for his team.

Police hit back two minutes later when forward Thabeeth Hafiz crashed over for a try off a maul to put his team 19-7 in the lead. With minutes ticking away Havies came up with some promising moves, but only one produced points. Just four minutes before the end Havelocks SC player Jayathu Rajaratne produced his team’s second try when he kicked the ball ahead, collected it and then wrestled against a police player for control and finally scored. Police started the second half with a try by Shanaka Harischandra.

In the thick of things in the second half Havies lost flanker Shenal Dheelaka for ten minutes for a yellow card offence while Police were reduced to 14 men just after that when Lahiru Tillakaratne was ordered to spend ten minutes in the sin bin by referee Ishanka Abeyoon.

Rugby analysts rated this win by police as remarkable because they had to be satisfied playing in the Plate Championship in the league tournament, but rose against all odds to win this segment of the tournament. The cops finished fourth in the league tournament and then moved with much hope to the Clifford Cup knockout tournament where they made the league champions CR&FC eat humble pie in the semi- finals with a smashing 40 points to 16 win. Police are coached this season by Nilfer Ibrahim.