The final of the Clifford Cup Knockout Championship held on the 9th of Match at the Racecourse grounds. The underdogs of this season, Police SC went to take on Havelock SC, promising the spectators of a mouthwatering encounter. The Cops managed to win the final battle against Havies by 19 – 12 to clinch the trophy of the tournament.
Police SC qualified for the final by beating the unbeaten league champions CR&FC in the first semifinal, by 40 – 16 points.
On the other side Havelock SC was managed to get on top of CH&FC to get their ticket to the final, by beating them by 37 – 27 points in the second semi final.
The first half of the game was a low scoring half cause mistakes from both sides slowed the pace of the game. But somehow Police was able to capitalize on one of the opportunities to score the only try of the half at the 35th minute of the match. Hirantha Perera was the try scorer who found a gap through the defense with a short pass to open the accounts of the game. The conversion was unsuccessful.
( POLICE 05 – 00 HAVELOCK )
With seconds to go on the clock to end the first half police opted to go for a penalty kick from the halfway mark but unfortunately it hit the padding.
Half time: Police SC 05 (1T) – 00 Havelock SC
Even though the spectators expected an intense high scoring second half, both teams failed to score about 25 minutes in the half.
Just at the beginning of the 66th minute Shanaka Harischandra stood up for the cops to score their second try of the game in order to put police on the safer side while Prince Chamara converted it successfully.
( POLICE 12 – 00 HAVELOCK )
When Havelock SC had a load of work to do Mushin Faleel came into action to score the first fry of Havies with a lovely dummy run in the 70th minute and it was smoothly converted by Samuel Maduwantha.
( POLICE 12 – 07 HAVELOCK )
This didn’t let Police down as they thunderously went to score the third try of the match at the 74th minute by Hafiz Thabeeth which was effortlessly converted by Shane Hopewood for police.
( POLICE 19 – 07 HAVELOCK )
Couple of minutes before the final whistle Havelock managed to get another unconverted try on the score board just to end with a high note even though they were handling the emotions of loosing this final. Jayathu Raarathnam the speedster was the try scorer for Havelock SC. This play blew the final whistle of the game bringing the victory to police park, ending this game by 19 – 12 points against the pink rugby. Spectacular performances by Hirantha Perera and Akash Maduwantha was highlighted through out this game and Hirantha was able to get the player of the match title under his name.
( POLICE 19 – 12 HAVELOCK )
Full time: POLICE SC 19 (3T 2C) beat HAVELOCK 12(2T 1C)
Player of the Match: Hirantha Perera
Points Breakdown:
POLICE SC: Hirantha Perera 1T, Thabeeth Hafiz 1T, Shane Hopewood 1C, Shanaka Harischandra 1T, Prince Chamara 1C
HAVELOCK SC: Jayathu Rajarathnam 1T, Mushin Faleel 1T, Samuel Maduwantha 1C
