CR and FC produced a superb late charge to beat Police SC 23-20 in the SLR Nippon Paint Clifford Cup Knock-Out Rugby Tournament first semi-final encounter played at the Racecourse Grounds in Colombo yesterday.
The League Tournament runners-up were trailing until the last 10 minutes of play but staged a magnificent late rally to snatch the game while collecting their points from two goals and three penalties.
Police SC, who led 10-9 at half time, did almost everything correct and were heading towards a major upset before they threw the game at the last moment after having collected their points from two goals and two penalties.
CR and FC opened the scoring in the 13th minute with a Chathura Seneviratne penalty before Prince Chamara produced the equaliser for Police SC in the 17th minute.
Police SC scored their first try in the 28th minute when hooker Dulanjana Wijesinghe powered his way to touch down almost under the post giving Chamara an easy conversion and a 10-3 lead at that stage.
Few minutes later, Thenuka Nanayakkara reduced the deficit for CR and FC with an easy penalty which was followed by a splendid 55 metre penalty from their ace place-kicker Seneviratne to make it 9-10.
CR and FC suffered a major setback at this stage as two of their key players Lasindu Karunathilaka and Eranda Harshana were handed yellow cards after Vageesha Weerasinghe suffered the same fate in the first half.
As a result, Police SC really exploited the depleted CR and FC team and went on to score their second try in the 64th minute with Chamara doing the honours and also adding the extra points. However, CR and FC produced their best game during the last few minutes and scored twice through Karunathilaka and Amith Gurusinghe to turn the game in their favour with Seneviratne converting both tries.
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