The Hindu : Sport : Chennai Cheetahs wins a thriller

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Sunday, Aug 29, 2010
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Chennai Cheetahs wins a thriller

Principal Correspondent

KOLKATA: Chennai Cheetahs made a strong comeback to stop Kolkata Police 22-12 on the opening day of the all-India and South Asia rugby at the CC& FC ground here on Saturday.

The home side raced to a 12-0 lead before the Chennai side turned things around with some good attacking skills shown by its Samoan recruit Lorenzo Burges, who scored the bulk of the points.

Enjoying the initial advantage, the policemen scored the first try in the fifth minute with Koushik Ghosh making the touchdown.

Sheikh Mohidul converted the following effort before Mohammad Saidul brought up the second try soon to have the local police outfit leading 12-0 by the 12th minute.

A red card for Bibhas Sharma and a subsequent yellow for Masudul Haq minutes before half-time reduced the home side to 13 men allowing the opponent to hit back. Cheetahs made the most of their numerical superiority and reduced the margin with a try and a conversion from Nandagopal and Emil Vartazarian to make it 12-7 at half time.

The visitors were all over in the second half with Lorenzo making a couple of tries to add 10 points and take the Cheetahs into lead. Emil fetched another five points with couple of conversions, including a penalty, to complete the tally for the visitor.

In another first round encounter former champion Army Red easily got past local challenger Jungle Crows 17-5. For the winner Shokender and Rohit Sivach made a try each while Pushpendu Das made three conversions, including a penalty.

Zafar Khan reduced the margin for Jungle Crows with a try at the fag end of the match. The first round winners move into the Cup round while the losers play in the plate division. The rest of the four first round matches will be played on Sunday.

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