Tongans Sae Angsta and Atelea Uaisele stood tall and spearheaded Havelocks Sports Club to a 31-16 win over CH & FC in a Caltex A Division league rugby match at Maitland Crescent yesterday.
While the locals from both sides committed grave mistakes the two Tongans made sure to give Havelocks the winning formula. CH had the spirited backing of Fijians Salusalu Ilissa and Apisai Nagata Jr. But both were well countered by the Havelocks players who held the upper hand at most times.
At half time Havelocks stood in front with a 16-8 lead. By fulltime they finished up with four tries, a conversion and three penalties. CH scored from two tries and two penalties.
Winger Indika Wickramanayake gave CH an early lead with a penalty but Havelocks equalized through a penalty from centre Atelea Uaisele in the 13th minute. A long pass collected by winger Ruchira Ratnage, who went over for an unconverted try in the 17th gave Havelocks a 8-3 lead. In the 29th minute Uaisele barged through the CH defense for an unconverted try and a penalty five minutes later from scrumhalf Amjad Buksh put Havelocks in the box seat with a 16-3 lead. But just before two minutes from the half time break, CH skipper and winger Lakala Perera scored an unconverted try from the right flank to cut down the deficit to 16-8.
Just after ten minutes from the turnaround Wickramanayake converted a penalty to help CH catch up the shortfall at 16-11. However a fine try by winger Sae Angsta followed by the conversion and a penalty from Buksh cleared Havelocks of further doubts of a win as they took the lead at 26-11. Perera scored an identical try for the second time to put CH back on the fray as they trailed 16-26 but Angsta fooled the entire CH defense to cover half the field to post a try which went unconverted to give Havelocks a fitting victory at 31-16. |
E-mail
