24 November 2019 06:11 pm Views - 468
By Harsha Amarasinghe and Sandun Kodithuwakku
Police Sports Club have been able to retain their Fijian hot-shot Emosi Vunivosa for the upcoming Inter-Club rugby season having starred for the Cops in the previous season.
Emosi, was first introduced as a scrum half who could also play in the midfield and he impressed everyone from the start of the season putting in Man-of-the-Match displays for the Policemen.
The Police management revealed that the 22-year-old will be part of their squad for the upcoming season and that they already have high hopes on this dynamic player.
“Last year of course, he could not play all the games because the clubs were not allowed to play their overseas players during a certain period. But whenever he played, he gave his best and he was magnificent for us last season.”
“We won almost every game that he played and I really hope that he will be available for the entire season this time around which will be a huge boost for our squad,” Shanaka Harishchandra who leads Police SC this season told the Daily Mirror.
The Cops are set to meet the CR and FC in their opening game but the skipper believes Kandy Sports Club along with the CH and FC would be the hardest teams to beat in the coming season.
“We play CR in our opening game, away from home but we won that fixture last year so we are very confident about winning that game.”
“But if you look at the whole competition, I think CH would be a tough game and the Kandy match too. Apart from that I don’t think there is lot of games that we would be under a lot of pressure,” added the lock forward.
Having finished fifth in last season, the Cops are hoping for a top-three finish this season.
“Last season we finished fifth and we had the opportunity to finish third or fourth had we not lost some very close games. So, this season our target is to try and finish in the top three,” added the captain.
Meanwhile, Police SC Head Coach Asanka Rodrigo claimed that having a number of senior players in the squad would be a huge advantage for them.
“We have a lot of senior players in this squad. If you look at the captains of last two seasons Udara Sooriyapperuma and Rasith Silva, they are looking after the forwards and I must also mention the captain for this season, Shanaka Harishchandra and Vice-Captain Iroshan de Silva are both very important players for us,” Rodrigo told the Daily Mirror.
Police SC have also signed up some exciting young players including S. Thomas’ College forward Adesha Hadunpathirana and St. Joseph’s College’s D. Imesh.
Daily Mirror Prediction
The Police SC pack is full of experience and they have plenty of pace in that backline.
More importantly most of these players have been playing together for many years and understand each other’s game.
They should settle into a mid-table finish and any fan watching them play at the Police Park would fall in love with their rugby.
Player to watch out for
Emosi Vunivosa – showed exactly what he is capable of doing last season and in the upcoming season he can only get better.
Although he was introduced as a scrum half by the end of last season, he had played across each position in that Cops’ backline.
Well, that happens when you are the best player in the Police SC Squad.