A nightmare on Rugby Street

Dialog Schools Rugby League 2024 – Week 2 Tactical Analysis

The much sought-after, revered and treasured Sri Lanka Schools Rugby entered the second week rather jinxed, as a few more top Schools joined the rest who were in miserable form, and in pre-season mode. As such, there is little purpose in going into details on how poorly these teams performed, hence shall cut those as short as possible.

Zahira hosting St. Joseph’s – 22 June

Joes hop-stepped and jumped Darley Road to their familiar and friendly neighbours, for an afternoon filled with delightful Rugby, in which both schools exited the pre-season mode to dish out the most exciting game of the weekend. The turnaround invoked by the respective coaching staff was remarkable, as it was a relief to see at least 2 teams climbing out of the rut, making room for a few others who opted to fall into it a bit late.

Joes have corrected almost all the cardinal inferiorities that prevented them from playing palatable Rugby last weekend. The number of penalties given away were cut down by half, and the support play while advancing with the Ball has been strengthened to minimise ‘holding-on’ infringements to a solitary 1 from 5. In addition, the improper cleanout and formation of Rucks have been reformed to bring ‘killing the Ball’ foul also to a mere 1 from 4. This allowed Joes to focus on the game, enabling spontaneous decision making which they were struggling to do last weekend.

 Zahira played a much-improved game of attacking Rugby, making this encounter a thrilling pendulum swinger until the last second. The Zahirians seemed fearless against the bulkier opponents while attacking and defending, that made the visitors toil for every precious point. Although the Zahira coaching unit has worked on completely eliminating the ‘killing the Ball’ offense from a whopping 5 in their last game, they replaced it with 5 ‘offside’ offenses, all inside their own territory. In addition, it appears that no work has been done in improving support play in order to reduce ‘holding on’ penalties, as it remained 3 as last week. Coincidentally all 3 transpired while attacking inside the opposition’s territory, which left the attackers alone and vulnerable to finish off the onslaughts. This shortcoming allowed the opposition to ‘jackal’ the Ball occasionally as well. To add insult to injury, Zahira’s lineout was a total flop as they lost possession 5 times while throwing in, even without being contested. Consequently, Zahira still had a steep Hill to climb before they could start winning their first game.

 Result: St. Joseph’s beat Zahira 26-22 

 S. Thomas’ hosting St. Anthony’s – 22 June:

The severe weather that prevailed prior to the kick-off knocked most Cameras out, thereby blacking out the first 15 minutes of play. This review is based on the remainder of the game after STC scored two converted Tries.

 The highlight of this encounter is the comeback of SACK playing the kind of Rugby that they are very much capable of. Their coaching staff have performed a miracle in drastically cutting down on the fouls and unforced handling errors within the span of a week, although the former could benefit from a tad more improvement. This allowed the visitors to display some of their Rugby skills more confidently and prominently, earning them more brownie points among the spectators. They also demonstrated that they could not only counter the much ‘hyped’ Thomian Forwards, but could also breach them with their Mauls and pick ‘n drives. The steep decline in handling errors reminded the enthusiasts as to what beautiful manoeuvres the Anthony’s three quarters are capable of showcasing at lightning speed.

3 crooked throws, 2 penalty touch kicks that failed to clear the touchlines, and a missed easy conversion were the heavy burdens that weighed the Eagles down in this encounter.

 Result: S. Thomas’ beat St. Anthony’s 24-17 

DS Senanayake hosting Trinity – 22 June:

The hottest contest of the weekend did have a tight neck-to-neck contest, but not on the scorecard. DS pulled and stayed ahead on the scoreboard fairly easily, but the on-field tension created pressure for both teams resulting in an average game of Rugby. The situation may have further worsened with somewhat soggy and soft parts of the park, where the Players of both teams were finding it difficult to hold their footing.

Although both teams looked pretty promising last week, other than for a few minor correctable shortcomings, they seem to have fallen off a Cliff this week. Overall, DS played much better cohesive Rugby than Trinity and were deserving winners, nevertheless the Rugby enthusiasts weren’t, at least during the second half. Trinity played a subpar game of Rugby that no one wishes to watch, let alone remember. DS played an average game of Rugby with nothing much to show. Everything that could go wrong, did for both teams, and more so for Trinity, as every department of Trinity Rugby other than tackling, was sheer disaster.

 DS didn’t seem to have come to this game with a clear plan on how to play it, as they seemed quite joyful kicking the Ball back and forth, just as if simply hurling the Dice on a Casino Table. When that didn’t work in their favour, they started to look for touch, but kicked almost everything fully out. One thing that was done right was to engage their Forwards, once they got into the Trinity 22, which returned them tangible results, and the win.

 Result: DSS beat Trinity 14-10 

Vidyartha hosting Royal – 23 June:

Vidyartha College Kandy somewhat withstood the heavy rumble of the Royal Forwards to a reasonably modest loss by 15 points. As this was a clash between the heavyweights and the featherweights, the question was what tactics the Vidyartha camp would unveil to counter the opponent’s Pack. However, their cause was thoroughly aided by the visitors, who were feeling quite charitable during the Poson weekend, gifting a ton of opportunities with the Ball and additional territory. Nevertheless, it was a terrible day for kicking for both sides, as the giant sticks were never pierced even once.

 Royal College gave away 20 penalties and thereby a heap of chances for them to exceed 50 points, possibly because they wished to give hope to their arch Rivals who suffered a disastrous Saturday. They used their Forwards effectively to score all of their Tries. The visitors tackled well, not giving the hosts any space to run, and choking them to cough-up up to 3 forced knock-ons.

Vidyartha failed to capitalise on a good sum of penalty opportunities presented to them, messing up 2 penalty touch kicks, and missing 2 penalties that they opted to kick at goal. The soggy surface slowed them down, not allowing their three quarters to attain their optimal speed or footwork. They had improved their Ball handling considerably despite the wet conditions since last weekend, hence they could be pleased with this outing against one of the Titans of schools Rugby.

 Result: Royal beat Vidyartha 25-10 

Science hosting Isipathana – 23 June

Isipathana College backpaddled down to pre-season mode of an average top Segment team, to frustrate the supporters in green claddings. Their opponents, although didn›t fall so deep since last week, messed up certain areas that could have paved the only way to counter the visitors.

 To begin with the positives, both teams tackled very well, preventing many advancing and Try scoring opportunities. However, the visitors were able to break through a few narrow spaces opening up due to the defenders being down or still recovering after making a series of frequent tackles, to score some Tries. Isipathana excelled in the lineouts, turning over a few crucial ones, which they used to score a Try with, while the hosts messed up a few on their own without any intervention.

 Isipathana tried to play a dominating and attacking game threatening to advance further inside the opposition’s territory continually, but adopting the offensive style of a high-performance Basketball team. Dribbling was the name of the game for Pathana in this game, where they committed nearly 10 unforced knock-ons, in addition to a few more handling errors. Some non-green spectators may have even wondered if the Bus had brought the wrong team to the venue. They kicked most of their restart kicks fully out, and 3 of their touch finders off penalties, fell at mid Sea.

 Although Science’s Ball handling was much better, the few errors they committed hurt them much, as usual. Their poor hooking at the lineouts, deprived their strong Forwards sufficient chances to use Mauls as launchpads. There seems absolutely no point in committing resources to build a Pack as strong as what they possess now, if their lineout is unable to even retain their own throw-ins.

Result: Isipathana beat Science 19-9 

Footnote:

As the purpose of this column is to constructively contribute towards levelling up the quality of Rugby from a reasonably high to an ultra-high altitude, reviewing encounters played at the pre-season quality doesn’t serve its purpose. In addition, the 2024 league has been infused with at least 3 schools that are too weak for the upper division, that will result in landslide wins of the stronger teams. There shall be no benefit for either school by reviewing these encounters either, and thus shall be skipped this week and throughout the league.

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