It was dancing in the rain for the Havelocks
Havelocks Sports Club enjoyed a power packed beginning to their Dialog Rugby League campaign, pummelling Police Sports Club by 36 to nothing, with underfoot conditions at Havelock Park yesterday.
Kicking off as the second match of the opening week, under lights, at 6.30pm, Havies ran off with a tally of five tries, out of which two came off skipper Jason Melder, four conversions and a solitary penalty, all from the boot of Riza Mubarak. At halftime the winners led 17-0 and made the scoreless Cops sweat even under pouring rain.
However the winners dominated a game that could be termed as scrappy right through. The Cops missed ground on a number of occasions after failing to put the ball into touch off penalties and were guilty of being sent back many times, because of unforced errors. The game flow was disrupted many times, mainly of penalty counts which was a high of 35.
Debutant Praneeth Weranga had the honour of kicking off the game as the referee, with the Havies kicking off to a rapid start. They scored in the fifth minute off hooker Prasad Madushanka and Mubarak added extra points to lead 7-0. Within a matter of two minutes lock Melder touched down and Mubarak made an easy conversion to put Havelocks further in front by 14-0. Mubarak added three more points to the Havies’ total off a penalty that came in the 30th minute as the hosts took lemons with a 17-0 lead.
After the resumption Melder pushed forward to score his second try of the game which was converted by Mubarak, who went on to post the fourth try for his team added by a conversion in the 66th minute. The Cops gave all they had, but weren’t good enough to penetrate Havelocks, who sealed the game through an unconverted try through winger Kevin Dixon just before the close of the game.
Come Friday, Havelocks will host Air Force under lights while the Cops will face a tough opponent in Kandy SC at Police Park on Saturday.