PIX BY PRADEEP DILRUKSHANA

By Amindha de Alwis

Army SC and CH&FC played out a 31-31 draw in what was a keenly contested Nippon Paint Rugby League tournament encounter at the Racecourse Grounds in Colombo yesterday.

A converted try by CH&FC in the 77th minute evened the scores despite the resolute Army defence which had held on for most of the second-half.

In a see-saw game, it was CH&FC who got the ball rolling with early tries by Dinuk Amarasinghe and Nethmina Hirusha, followed by a drop goal from the latter. 

Army SC fought back with back-to-back tries within three minutes of each other courtesy Sudaraka Dikkumbura and Lahiru Rathnayake. They then took the lead on the cusp of half-time as Dikkumbura went over for the second time to have his side leading 21-17 at the break.

The second half was hotly fought with neither team allowing the other to capitalise on any momentary lead they obtained. A penalty scored by Army’s Lasantha Kumara was soon followed up with Prasath Madushanka of CH&FC crossing the line, and having his try converted by Hirusha.

Hardly two more minutes passed, however, before Mohomad Akram stormed through for yet another Army try to push their lead to 31-24.

CH&FC came close to crossing the line several times over the next twenty minutes and for a while it appeared that Army would cling on, before Udara Jayapala penetrated the defence to level the scores 31-31 with the clock ticking down.

Army made a few last-ditch attempts to score, including an attempt at the posts, during a heated passage of play that saw both Dikkumbura from Army and Ravindu Hettiarachchi from CH issued yellow cards.

However, the referee’s whistle was soon blown and both sides were left to walk away with shared points.