A mellow and condensed weekend of Rugby

 As Saturday is a religious holiday, the 8 games have been split between Friday and Sunday, and with only a few exciting matches to look forward to. However, this weekend could also pack a few surprise upsets, or at least some game changing tactics employed by certain Coaches, and those would be the focus of this week’s preview.

 St. Joseph’s vs Royal at Havelock Park on 19 July:

Royal College shall be taking on a twice bitten and mediocre Josephian outfit as their final quest before the momentous Group showdown that is scheduled to go down in the subsequent week, which is expected to be much larger than the Super Round games. However, the Royal Tuskers should tread with caution in their approach to this encounter for two reasons. The first being, Joes have been trained perfectly well on their rugby skills, and its only that the execution was lacking in their games all this while. Therefore, Joes have the ability to click abruptly and conquer the day, even against certain strong sides like Royal. Secondly, Royal’s game is still quite average, and they don’t seem to be improving much with every game in order to be able to hit their peak, which is quite worrisome, as this has seldom happened in the Royal camp during the past several years. On the contrary, St. Joseph has what it takes to stand up confidently and bravely against the Titans, and somewhat manage to counter each of their skillset.

The Tuskers’ skillsets are at a much higher level than the Saints’ in every possible department, however, Joes have the attitude to attack continuously, and thereby apply pressure on the opposition. Since Royal’s Ball handling capability and law-abiding mentality have shown tendency to deteriorate from time to time, Joes are the perfect candidates who could unsettle them. Hence, although the Royalists are the clear-cut favourites in this encounter, they may encounter some stiff resistance by the Saints.

Joes’ primary weakness during the past several years against teams like Royal has been their Maul defence. They have the tendency to not engage in Mauls while the opposition is throwing-in inside the danger zone, even at a 5m lineout. This has resulted in the opposition scoring Tries many times against Joes, which has led to their defeats. Since they are still coached by the same squad, Royal should be able to capitalise on this vulnerability, unless Joes has come up with some fresh ideas to counter stronger Mauls this season.

 St. Peter’s vs Zahira at SPC Ground on 19 July:

This shall be the final opportunity for the Bamba Brigade to perfect their game, before they meet fellow Titans Royal College at the wild and unforgiving Jurassic Park. The Brigade’s game has been mildly infected with Ball handling and occasional kicking issues that have prevented them from scoring as many Tries as they would have liked to, and worse, they seem to be struggling to shake this off completely. Thus, they will look to tune their game to the optimal, in order to ready themselves for the big game, and Zahira would serve as the perfect opponent to test them reasonably well in almost all departments.

It would be quite interesting to see what surprise Coach Shamlie has in store for the defending Champs? He took the Forwards game to Royal, and ran the Ball in a pool of water against Vidyartha. Is he now planning to fly like Peter’s three-quarters, is left to be seen? He successfully picked and drove against the might of the Tuskers, so Pete’s Forwards might seem like Child’s play for the Zahirians, while both attacking and defending. The young Maradana blokes’ tackling has been improving game-by-game, so as to protect their goal line as if it was a shrine, and possibly in preparation for this particular encounter. Their relentless defending and tackling in an effort to turn-over possession at every set piece, and at every point in the playing field speaks volumes of their mindset, and their determination to protect and serve their goal line. This encounter would clearly show the masses, as to how far they could go to limit or stop the SPC three-quarters, and this would also be the make-or-break factor for them.

 Trinity vs St. Anthony’s at Pallekele on 19 July:

The Antonians have been brave losers all season, as they were seen to put up rigid defences, and portrayed spectacular infiltration capabilities using their Backline in almost all their games. Unfortunately, last weekend they were not themselves at all, displaying a slumped performance that led to an unexpected and humiliating defeat at the hands of underdogs Dharmaraja. If this is to continue, Trinity would have a field day on Friday, to further enhance the pain of the Antonian fraternity.

Injuries of key players can demotivate and break down mentalities, if the coaching unit has planned their tactics around star players. This is a destructive approach to coaching and especially team building. Rugby is a team sport and should be utilised to impart and harness teamwork among the players. Making plays and devising tactics around key players is not the way to go in schools Rugby. Science College suffered a similar setback a few weeks ago, and SACK fell into a deeper ditch in losing to underdogs Dharmaraja, like minnows. These should serve as lessons to ALL schools, playing ALL team games, especially those that are prone to injuries.

 D.S. Senanayake vs Isipathana at Sugathadasa Stadium on 21 July:

After going one-down in a surprise turn of fortune last weekend, Donz shall be looking to make amends by gearing up for the team that they were truly preparing to beat, all these months. The loss to STC was a totally unexpected and unprecedented setback, that they would expect to forget and focus on bringing the Green Machine down in another glorious upset.

For starters, DS should opt to play the kicking game and get Isipathana to run the Ball from their own territory every possible time, as they have been struggling with Ball handling all season, especially against effective tackling forces. This would ensure that DS gets a scrum every 7 minutes, at wherever the Ball is in play. As most teams have the tendency to give away more penalties while playing in their own territory due to pressure, that might give DS some additional attacking opportunities as well. DS would rely on its consistently improving tackling skills to try and curtail the Pathans. However, the main idea would be to not give away Ball possession, hence DS is forecasted to play an all-new Forwards game in this encounter, with additional ornaments to beautify it than what was showcased at the Antho game. They will choose to pick ‘n drive and keep the Ball concealed at most times. They would also aim to overpower the Greens with their Mauls at the lineouts.

However, they would face a major problem to get the latter plan materialised. First of all, their lineout contesting and turnover capabilities are minimal, although they possess the ability to distract and confuse the opposition Hooker to either target inaccurately or throw strays. Therefore, they would have to rely on Isipathana penalties to throw the Ball-in inside the opposition’s 22. Unfortunately for DS, Coach Saliya Kumara has already learnt from his mistakes from the last season, and disciplined the Pathana game already. Isipathana has worked hard and improved in this aspect over the weeks, to concede only 7 penalties in their game against Trinity. In a factual sense, it is quite a tidy task to keep a team’s infringements so low in a tight, neck-to-neck, and hard-fought contest. Therefore, DS would have to make every penalty count to get maximum points, but if their ploy is to get 3 by 3, then Coach Asela hasn’t learnt anything from last year, and have already lost the plot and the game, hence we can count them out and switch channels already.

 Dharmaraja vs Science at Pallekelle on 21 July:

Although Dharmaraja enjoyed a thumping victory over St. Anthony’s last weekend, the victory was solely due to Antho’s follies, and not due to the brilliance of the Rajans. Rajans did display a fresh face and a completely new outlook to the game, that was quite promising indeed. Many of their gameplays have been enhanced to a level that could be appreciated, as detailed in the Week 5 Review, but only 1 out of the 4 Tries were scored by Rajans’ tactical play. Therefore, this game is forecasted to be a one-sided affair and Science is expected to run away with 30-40 points. 

 (The writer can be reached at: [email protected])