Army VS Police for the plate final

Over the past week we have had a mixture of international and local rugby. Looking ahead, on the local rugby front, the Army Vs Police clash will undoubtedly take pride of place, this weekend.

The game has been shifted by a day to accommodate the Junior Asiad games. As of now, it’s a mere two points that separate the two teams, and one of the hallmarks of success of Army has been their ability to garner bonus points in almost all the games. Army is on 42 points after six wins with a whopping 12 bonus points whilst Police are at 40 points with seven wins and five bonus points. 

In this statistic lies a portion of the success story of Army this year, as their ability to run the ball wide and score tries has become their trademark style of play. 

In the junior Asiad, as I write Sri Lanka are doing well having seen of the first challenge with consummate ease. This is despite the fact that some of the schoolboy stars are out of action through prolonged injury. Whilst we continue to do well at these lower levels, we are unable to step to the rigours of full international rugby. 

The only way forward appears to be the route taken by Japan. It’s quite a costly route and the Union must be able to rope in the sponsors if we are to make a name for ourselves at the senior level on the international map. We need to start with the Asian five nations and work ourselves up the ladder. Some foresight, meticulous planning, adequate funds and fair play in the selection process are the basic hurdles that we will have to overcome initially. 

Overseas, the rugby championships will continue this week as well with the All Blacks meeting the Boks while the Wallabies will meet the Pumas. Veteran lock Nathan Sharpe will captain the Wallabies for this clash on the Gold Coast on Saturday.  

Sharpe was handed the captaincy as Genia has been ruled out for six months. Sharpe will have his hands full as in addition to planning to win, he will also be now be hoping to evade the ‘captain’s curse’ that has struck previous skippers Genia, David Pocock and James Horwill. Interestingly Sharpe is set to retire after the tournament and will definitely consider it as an honour to captain Australia. With Kurtley Beale exhibiting poor form, Berrick Barnes switches to fullback. Quade Cooper will now have to partner with Nick Phipps, and if what we saw last week is anything to go by, the partnership looked pretty rusty. 

The main reason could be that Genia is very rarely replaced and thus this combination will need time to settle. It’s interesting to see that once again the ‘old war horse’ Ridike Samo gets to start at the all important # 8 slot. 

He is a strong ball carrier and can generally last sixty minutes. In all probability we will see him replaced by Higginbotham thereafter. It appears as of now that Higginbotham is being used as the impact player, a reversal of roles as Samo was the impact player previously.  

The All Blacks have recalled scrum-half Piri Weepu for Saturday’s clash with South Africa. Interestingly Weepu earns a promotion in the only change to the All Blacks’ back line possibly as a reward for his sterling performance against Argentina as a second half substitute, which enabled them to forge ahead.  

Further, Liam Messam comes in at blindside for Victor Vito, who many critics believe is a poor ball carrier. Dan Carter will remain sidelined due to injury, and the all Blacks will have to come to grips with losing him as well as Sonny Bill Williams. One of the key strengths of SBW has been his ability to offload the ball at critical phases of the game, thereby proving the team with great forward momentum. The replacements certainly have big boots to fill. 

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