Wednesday Nov 13, 2024
Wednesday Nov 13, 2024
Friday, 28 March 2014 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The Brumbies coach and former Wallaby, Stephen Larkham, is a fan of reducing the points for penalties but has warned against changing the fundamental laws of the game. He believes that changing the points for penalties is a good idea, making it more valuable to score tries.
Whilst this may have merit, in my opinion it opens the door for teams to give away a penalty as it will cost them only two points. If the points are to be reduced for penalties, referees will have to be vigilant of ‘professional fouls’ and the awarding of a penalty try might be more common.
The issue of scrum resets has been perennial as there is a fair amount of time wasted in the quest to get the scrum perfect. There used to be a similar issue with line outs but the new laws make the line out a lot quicker and cleaner.
Whatever the outcome may be, we all like to see a fast game, with the emphasis on the quality of the players and their playing skills taking centre stage and less of the referees’ involvement.
Schools rugby
If last week is anything to go by, this week’s clashes should be exciting as well. Wesley were quite unlucky last week as several promising moves were cut short due to poor handling skills and equally poor decisions taken in the field of play. This week they will meet RC and both teams will be out to prove that last week’s loss was a minor jolt in their quest for championship honours this season.
Science had an easy passage with a comfortable victory last week and this week will square up against the Peterites who had a rather lacklustre outing last week. Over the past two years expectations of the Petes have been high but they have failed to deliver the goods as they did under Martis, who incidentally is marshalling the Royal troops. During last week’s game against Pathana, he reacted quite poorly to certain sections of the crowd heckling him. His immaturity in such situations was plain to see and this does not augur well as he is in charge of school team with school kids looking up to him for guidance and example.
Trinity ran up nine tries last week and are looking in ominous form already as they play host to the Joes who had the better of Wesley last week. Beating Trinity is a tough ask and doing so in Kandy is an even tougher assignment.
The Pathana lads should have it easy against DSS, based on the performance last week. Pathana and Science continue to play a different style of rugby. They are quick to the breakdown, counter ruck very well and are willing to run the ball at every given opportunity. At times over enthusiasm gets the better of the lads and then they gift easy penalties to the opposition.
After one of the games last week there was an allegation that one of the teams had fielded an ineligible player. I am surprised that in this day and age of automation the authorities cannot maintain a proper database of the players. If this is maintained accurately and players are assigned cards, indicating the team that are able to represent then we should not be having such allegations. To have such allegations at the end of the match mars the spirit of sportsmanship and undermines the very purpose of engaging in a sport.
(The writer can be reached via [email protected].)
