Police’s rugby team will rue the result of the match for the rest of the season as they gifted Army with a 24-24 draw in their second round Dialog inter club League rugby championship match at Ratmalana yesterday.
Police held the lead 24-19 for more than 15 minutes until the last few seconds when they conceded a penalty unable to secure the ball against Army’s forwards from which came the deciding try.
Police despite referee Priyantha Gunaratne announcing that just over a minute’s play was left gave thought to keeping the ball in the maul instead of kicking it way into touch.
Then with less than a minute left Police continued to keep the ball among the forwards and inch forward only to offend Gunaratne in an infringement conceding a penalty and Army wasting no time made a quick tap of the ball twenty metres away from the line.
The move finally resulted in Army winger Sameera Bulathsinhala scoring by the left corner flag almost unmarked.
The conversion taken by Gayan Salinda could have given Army victory but the kick went astray as the scores were levelled at 24-24 at which time Gunaratne blew his final whistle.