CR and FC created history when they lifted the Clifford Cup after 17 years when they defeated Navy SC 24-18 in the 2023 Knock-Out Rugby Tournament final played at the Race course Grounds in Colombo.
Their success was even more memorable as CR and FC had just completed the unique milestone of 100 years of existence at Longden Place and they were also the runners-up of the SLR Nippon Paint Inter-Club League Tournament.
CR and FC stuck to their game plan as they have done throughout this season and came out victorious in this exciting final, which turned out to be a contest between the rival place-kickers.
In fact, the final produced only two tries and CR and FC had the honour of scoring both, which clearly demonstrated their superiority although they were leading by just a point going into the last few minutes of the game.
Therefore, hooker Lahiru Pavithra’s injury-time try was decisive in separating the two teams because until then the match could have gone either way with CR and FC leading 19-18.
This game will also be remembered for a long time because of the outstanding performances of the respective place-kickers as the final produced a total of 10 penalties with CR and FC contributing four and Navy SC adding six.
The other significant feature was that some of these penalties were converted from more than 50 to 55 metres out, which is a tremendous effort as CR and FC’s Chathura Seneviratne and Navy SC’s Samuel Maduwantha gave a fine exhibition of place-kicking under tremendous pressure.
In fact, Navy SC made their intentions clear and they were able to put over three important penalties even before the completion of 30 minutes of play. However, the more talented CR and FC outfit got their act together shortly before half time with their first try coming from Chathura Seneviratne, who played another stellar role with his accurate place-kicking.
CR and FC v Police SC
The Clifford Cup semi-final also turned out to be an exciting contest with CR and FC scoring two late tries to dash Police SC’s hopes of making it to the final after a lapse of eight years.
CR and FC went into the last 10 minutes of the game under tremendous pressure, but they launched a do-or-die battle against the solid Police SC defence to turn the game 23-20 in their favour.
The Policemen, of course, believed they had the game in their bag at one stage after some terrific loose play where they scored twice by completely out-hooking their opponents in the set pieces.
Navy SC v Army SC
Navy SC survived some anxious moments before overcoming Army SC 16-13 in the Clifford Cup semi-final, which went into extra time after the game ended in a 13-all draw at the Racecourse Grounds.
The Sailors were trailing for a better part of the game but they scored a last-minute try to level the scores before Thilina Weerasinghe executed a remarkable 50-metre drop goal to seal the contest in the first minute of extra time.
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| CR and FC Rugby Team with Nemantha Abeysinghe (GM, Nippon Paint) and Rizly Illyas (President SLR) |
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| Clifford Cup runners-up Navy SC with the Trophy |
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