CH through in the nick of time

By Harry Jayachandra

A rather bizarre last minute try by CH and FC’s scrum half Milinda Jayasinghe enabled his team to defeat Army by 22 points (two goals, one try and one penalty) to 17 points (two goals and one penalty) in their Caltex Segment A Division One rugby league encounter played at Maitland Place yesterday.Jayasinghe kicked the ball from his 40 metre line and saw the ball bounce on the line.

An Army prop forward instead of collecting the ball, played for the whistle. Jayasinghe followed his own kick, collected the ball and gleefully touched down by the left corner flag. Despite protests by the visitors, the officials were adamant that the ball did not cross the line and even to the naked eye it appeared that the ball did not go in to touch.

The controversy somewhat overshadowed a game that Army should have got something out of. They were by far the more enterprising side and the expansive game that they played was a delight to the neutral. The hosts on the other hand did not seem to have any game plan and came alive with some enterprising rugby only in the last 15 minutes.

The first half belonged to Army. Wing three quarter Saliya Hadapangoda scored the first of his two brilliant tries. A product of St. Luke’s Ratnapura ran over 50 metres and passed numerous CH and FC defenders for his try and over 30 metres for his second. Army Captain and full back Ajith De Silva put over the penalty and converted both tries, one from the touch line.

For the hosts centre Ruchira Perera touched down once as did substitute Indika Udayakumara and of course Jayasinghe. Full back Nuwan Basnayake converted one try and put over a penalty. Stand off Omar Hussain converted the second try.

Referee Pradeep Fernando.

Today; Air Force will take on Kandy SC at Ratmalana, while Havelocks will meet Old Zahirians Spots Club at Havelock Park. Kick off at 4.30 pm.