Perseverance and determination saw Police SC snatch victory over CR & FC by 21 points to18 in a second round Dialog rugby league fixture at Longdon Place yesterday.
The minutes were fading away and Police were trailing by just four points but they kept attacking and pressurizing the CR goal line to go over for a try by the nippy scrum half Primesh Dhanushka mid right to snatch a great win.
The conversion by Janith Chandimal gave them a three-point lead when the final whistle was blown by Priyantha Gunaratne.
Police scored two tries, a conversion and three penalties to two tries, a conversion and two penalties by CR.
However,the game itself did not produce any thrills unlike the first round encounter where CR produced some scintillating rugby to finish winners. Both teams were seen indulging in careless handling and passing the ball that made it very scrappy.
Police should be thankful to their place kicker Janith Chandimal who put over three penalties and one conversion to contribute with 11 points that paved the way for their win.
Police opened scoring with a penalty by Chandimal but CR scored a try that was converted. Thereafter it was Police who did the scoring through two more penalties by Chandimal to give them a 9-7 lead at half time.
CR came back in the second half through a try by Omalka Gunaratne who was found in the back division to create the opening and go over in the third minute of the second half.
Tharinda Ratwatte who came into the game in this half and failed to add the extra points. But they took the lead 12-9.
Police worked the ball around and off a three-quarter move centre Iroshan Silva found the gap and when challenged passed over to his brother Sasith Silva who scored unchallenged.
Chandimal failed with the conversion but Police went ahead 14-12.
Though CR were reduced to 14 men thereafter, they hit back and won a penalty and Ratwatte did the honours from 40 metres out to take the lead by a point.
CR went ahead when an off-side in the loose gave them another penalty and Ratwatte kicked right from 50 metres out. At that point CR took the lead to just four points and never looked like scoring after that.
Police had other ideas and went on the rampage advancing towards the CR goal line that made scrum half Primesh Dhanushka spot an opening on the blind side to dash over and score.
Chandimal had an easy conversion and Police led by three points and to their delight the final whistle too was blown.