The underdogs prove a a point

Navy and the Havies went into Saturday’s game having lost their first round encounter against Kandy and CR respectively. Navy has always maintained a sense of unpredictability about its play and has been the only team to consistently beat Kandy in the last few years.

If it only takes the same self belief into other games on a consistent basis, reaching the pinnacle of local rugby will be within its grasp. On Saturday it turned in a superlative performance to beat Kandy at Welisara, but not without Kandy almost spoiling the party.

Navy is always assured of wonderful crowd support courtesy of the bus loads of naval ratings that throng the grounds. Whether all of them are rugby savvy is another question – but then who cares, their team is winning and who will dare to point a finger when such joys are theirs?

Before the start of the CR/Havies game, the rain threatened to play spoilsport and we wondered if it was going to be yet another mud battle. However, the weather gods were kind despite some initial showers.

The game did not reach any dizzy heights in terms of quality of rugby but the teams were out to prove a point. Despite an early lead of 17 points by the Havies, by half time this was reduced to a single score. On the stroke of half time, some poor defence by the Havies saw CR score under the posts.

The conversion was fluffed and my buddy at the match S.W. Chang commented that the miss would prove to be crucial in the final analysis. These were prophetic words as Havies won by a single point.

Havies had not beaten CR for a considerable period of time and at Longdon Place for even longer. Despite the win, the Mathysz trophy will remain with CR by virtue of the fact that the first leg was won by a margin of five points.

I am sure that as much as Havies wanted to win back the trophy, a simple win against arch rivals would suffice. The partying would have lasted into the wee hours of Sunday – after all beating CR at Longdon Place is a moment to cherish.

The experience of the CR front row was plain to see and ever so often we saw the Havies props being up in the air as if they were stuck on wooden stakes. Havies had a torrid time in the set pieces and it was a treat to watch CR go about the set pieces with clinical efficiency.

Even in the case of a Havies put in the CR pack, it steamrolled past them and this made it difficult for the Havies #8 to pick the ball as he had to back pedal. CR was ruthless in its execution of the game plan and ever so often we saw the winger joining in helping Lewke to achieve two pushover tries.

Despite this, the fact that Havies managed to win is mainly due to the lead of 17 points that it built up in the first 30 minutes of the game. In open play CR dropped the ball on many occasions and maybe the players were victims of over-enthusiasm.

The Guest of Honour was Ajith Abeyratne, the Trinity #8 of yesteryear and more recently the Chairman of the Selection Committee. What a fine sportsman he was on and off the field and it was a fitting tribute to have him at the game.