Exciting rugby this week

SCHOOLS GAMES

After an elongated break the schools rugby kicked off last week with the Royal/Thomian encounter. The Thoras after a rather dismal season put up a good show and were leading the Royalists for a good part of the game

.The Royalists thereafter came back strongly to win the game in the last quarter. There are various theories floating around on the improved performance of the Thomians. The thoras will meet Science College this week and the encounter is bound to be interesting for more reasons than one. Trinity will be boosted by the return of their mercurial skipper after national duty and should have it easy against Thurstan.

The pick of the games will be the Royal vs Peterite encounter. The Peterites have not had a very good season this year, although they are in the number three position in the league table. SPC have lost two games this season whilst Royal is yet to beaten. I know some of you will be jumping up and down saying that Trinity smashed Royal at the Royal complex. That was the return of the Bradby and thus does not count for the league.

I am sure that Royal is still smarting from that humiliating loss to Trinity and could come back very strong in this game aiming to prove a point. They will recall that they did not have a plan B against TCK and hence were bulldozed.

SPC will be in there knowing that Royal can be beaten. It will be interesting to see what sort of game plan that coach Sanath Martis will adopt. He is generally soft spoken, but be under no illusion as he is a smart thinker of the game and a shrewd tactician. His results over the past few years are ample testimony to this.

CALTEX LEAGUE

On the club front, we will see the much awaited Kandy vs Navy clash up at Nittawela. The scenes that one witnessed last week were a shame for Rugby and sport in general. The Union must ensure that they get their act together. Whilst it is good to the forces in their large numbers to witness such games, the discipline of them is equally vital.  If this is not nipped in the bud, we will witness a further decrease in the crowd support at club games.

JUNIOR ASIAD

Our junior lads returned home a few days ago empty handed. I am sure that the powers that be will initiate an inquiry into the issue. Whilst having an inquiry is the way to go, the learnings from such inquiries must be put to practice. There is no point is having an inquiry only to sweep it under the carpet and continue to do the same old things once again. It is often said that the recipe for madness is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results. When will we change? To me the answer is not visible on the horizon as of now.