CR/P the pick of the week

After four weeks of club rugby, three teams remain unbeaten and CR slots into the fourth position with a single loss. The rugby on offer up to now has been rather lackluster, with occasional flashes of brilliance. When teams are winning with margins of over one or two scores, it is generally an indication that the games are lopsided.

In this year’s contest, only the top four will contest the main competition and the rest will have to battle it out for the plate. As of now it appears that UCL and CR will battle it for the fourth slot. Navy and HSC have played consistently and Kandy had a shiver or two last week and won with a rather slim margin.

Police surprisingly notched up a win against UCL last week and hence the red shirts will be circumspect when they clash this Friday. If CR is to get back to winning ways they need to play with a purpose, be dominant with the forwards and the three quarters must be willing to tackle. If not, the opposition is bound to run away with the game. Police will approach this game with a lot of confidence given their showing last weekend and with the knowledge that they can compete and even win a game against tougher or much fancied opposition. Based on the form book, this game should be a closely contested affair and the think tank of the CR camp may have been working overtime in order to prove that the poor quality of play against traditional rivals was just an aberration.

HSC on the other hand are meeting CH and although CH may be placed at the bottom of the table, they did put up a good show against Kandy. Thus HSC should do well to guard against complacency as many a time we have seen the underdogs slip in a trick or two and cause severe embarrassment.  

In the third game, Navy will meet the UCL who are yet to consistently show that they are able to win at this level. Whilst the bulk of the players are of repute, the game is all about the 15 gelling as a team as opposed to being stars in their own right. Until then UCL will continue to flounder.

As indicated before the crowds at most of these club matches are poor and despite the tickets being priced lower that the school games, just a small smattering of diehards that make it for all the games.

What then ails the club scene? Is it that there is not adequate schoolboy talent being fed into the club system? Does this mean that a number of outstanding schoolboys give up the game after they leave school in the pursuit of higher studies/lucrative jobs that do permit time for the sport? Should the SLRFU look at a formula to nurture this talent full time as done by the cricketing fraternity? If we do not take stock of this now, we will very soon be devoid of quality club rugby and that would then be the demise of the sport.

We have another two weeks of super rugby to enjoy after which the final play offs will be worked off. The media is already full of news of certain stalwarts of the game moving onto greener pastures coaching staff being asked to move on etc. One of the news that caught my attention was that the Lions coach, former All Black, John Mitchell was asked to step aside even before the end of the season. Mitchell left the Western Force in 2010 with reports emerging of a rift with the team’s players. Thus his man management and coaching skills have allegedly been poor.



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