Electrifying and intense final sees St. Peters through

The Grand Finalè of the 9-week league run consisting of 45 games was hosted at a completely packed and overflowing St. Peter’s Rugby Stadium. Nevertheless, 3/4 of the supporters poured in to cheer the 3/4 skill plays of the Greens, making it an electrifying and intense Final in which St. Peter’s College emerged as the unbeaten League Champions.

Despite not consisting of a Star-studded lineup that has been venerated by social media, the Bamba Brigade dominated proceedings majority of the time, right from the kick-off. Coach Sanath Martis has shown how to build a cohesive and effective unit of 23, and proved that a champion team is possible even in the absence of Star Players. Moreover, it appears as if, even losing a couple of players from this lineup, would have little or no effect to the overall throughput of this team.

Admittedly, Isipathana Rugby is far more spectacular and captivating to the true Rugby lovers, although they fell short on many aspects, against a well-coached, fully accomplished side.

Peter’s hosting Isipathana – 19 Aug:

Within a few minutes following the first long whistle, it was evident to most that the home team was deemed to have an easy game with a convincing win, with the Greens having to suffer their biggest defeat this season. The observation was based on the initial body language, temperament, dominance and the approach shown in the game by both sides. However, SPC failed to be consistent with their start by giving away too many penalties that affected their onslaughts, resulting in a much lower margin. Luckily, or possibly by self-aware playing tactics, almost all of their 18 infringements occurred in the visitors’ territory, that merely prevented the hosts from scoring, instead of gifting penalty points to the defending Champs. Overall, these inferiorities of the hosts, held them back from scoring at least 15 points.

SPC continued to play its flamboyant and fast paced running game, habitually relying on its Backs, as how it was played in the past few encounters. They seldom changed their usual game as predicted by a majority of the experts, but did engage their Forwards on their offensives to gain real estate, and to suck-in Pathana defenders to create the overlaps. Their skilful long passes enabled them to capitalise on the overlaps, before the Pathana drift defence could react. 

They continued their exemplary defence, quite similar to that of Royal on the week before, and gave away only two Tries against the highly penetrative Pathana three quarters. Their swift and accurately marked tackling, forced 5 errors in the opponent’s camp. Their touch kicking during open play was their most lethal weapon that enabled them to keep their opponents pinned down. They bettered their dual 50:22 feat accomplished in the last game, with a triple in this all-important Final, with one of them being cashed-in for a Try.

On the contrary, the Greens had worked on their infringements and unforced handling errors to bounce back with a cleaner game that was acceptable for a Final. Unfortunately, two of their fouls occurred within kickable range inside their half, costing them 6 points against. The next level of play, when it comes to these tight encounters, is to be self-aware of where the play is, and to ensure that the laws of the game are adhered-to strictly, when playing within the dangerous ‘kicking zone’.

Pathana lacked customised tactics in this game to overcome a solid defence. Although they managed to break through the defence at times, using their Backs as well as the sprinting Forwards, they were constrained mostly by some precisely marked tackles. Pathana was unable to use their Forwards as much for pick ‘n drive assaults, or execute their touch kicking skills coupled with their lineout turnover capabilities, to gain territory. They employed conflicting tactics where in one instance, they worked the ball without kicking it away to relieve pressure within their 10, and then a short while later kicked it away, as they were on the offensive close to the 50. It was also quite bizarre to find them taking quick taps for two of the penalties that were offered in their 10 and 40, at the dying minutes of the game, whereas one would have expected them to gain massive territories by finding touch.

It must be only after the visitors returned to their dressing room, they must have pondered, realised and regretted the fact that did not opt to find touch during open play, and then contest their fate at the lineouts, which truly seem a brighter ploy for them. Even in a worst-case scenario of not able to turnover, at least they could have taken play to the opposition’s grid, applied pressure and squeezed out a few kickable penalties to get close to the target.

nResult: Peter’s beat Pathana 28-17

St. Anthony’s hosting Royal – 19 Aug:

Royal College identifying and acknowledging that they are up against the best tacklers in the league, who are not afraid to take on burly figures all day despite their own stature, played this game mostly with their Forwards, and succeeded on many occasions. On a few times they gained big ground using pick ‘n drives, they activated their Backs within the hosts’ 22, but were promptly brought down by the wide-eyed nippy defenders. Hence full credit to the visitors who had done their homework perfectly to make this an easy game for themselves, as the hosts never had any answer to the pick and drive onslaughts by the hefty Royal Forwards.

St. Anthony’s took the field with confidence, expecting to deal the best possible resistance to the visiting team. Their attitude and approach were positive, based on the realisation that they were not going to win this game with penalty points. Therefore, they opted to find touch at almost every penalty opportunity, despite some of them being within easy kicking range. Although this tactic was optimistic, they failed to make Hay during most of those spells executed on the visitors’ front Porch.

Sahan Keerthisiri continued to aid his team to gain territory by some fine, long distance touch finders, although they were unable to turnover possession in the lineouts. Although they tried to apply pressure on the hosts inside their grid, they weren’t much effective due to their rising number of infringements that went up from 12 to 14 from the last game. Therefore, now it becomes evident that the coaching staff feels that they could give themselves a better chance of succeeding in the game, by not following its laws at times, given the chance that only a fraction of infringements are spotted by the middle men. For instance, the second Try scored by SACK followed the style of American Football, where a defender was blocked from going after the Try scorer. On another occasion close to the end, Antho Captain Sahan Keerthisiri was sent off with a yellow card, caught by the Referee in this occurrence for doing the same, but this time when Royal was on the offensive chasing a punted ball close to the Antho 10.

In all the past several years that Antho couldn’t make it to the limelight, they seldom utilised such negative tactics, which was possibly the sole reason for them to be loved by the Rugby Community. Now the question is, does SACK value victories more than values and principles? An important decision should be made considering that the players are bound to carry forward the negatives that they learn today in the game, into their lives tomorrow.

nResult: Royal beat SACK 37-14