Wesley goes ‘zam zam zake’

After beaten Pathana the week before, the weight of expectations was high. All the eyes were on Wesley as to whether the previous week’s performance was a flash in the pan or whether Wesleyites was a force to be reckoned with.

The first half was a poor display by Wesley and they were trailing SACK, not due to the ability but lack of focus. The crowd at Longdon Place was noisy and the cheering for both teams was fantastic. SACK turned in a better performance than what they did against SPC, but it was simply not enough.

The Wesley team will not give the opposition any sleepless nights in terms of weight, and muscle but they are a very mobile unit and their number eight by far is the largest bloke in the team. What he lacks in terms of the overall natural skill is that he is made up for by way of enthusiasm, attitude and healthy appetite (no pun intended) for hard work.

Wesley was willing to run the ball at every occasion and that tactic definitely paid off. The score line may not be indicative of the keen tussle, but school rugby is here to stay and I can see a very enjoyable season ahead of us.

The Wesley supporters were very vociferous on Friday afternoon while their war cry is still ringing in my ears “Zam zam zake, zam zam zay, ushiba, ushiba, ooh, ha, hey.” This definitely got the side going in the second half and Coach Henry was all smiles.

It was a refreshing change to see the coaching staff minus any clipboard but egging on his enthusiastic bunch of players with short simple commands. At times, the coaching staff can complicate a simple game. There will be others that will have a different view but I firmly believe in the ‘kiss’ philosophy at least at schoolboy level.   

The other games worked off went on schedule. The Petes finally got their act together in the second half. This was quite a contrast for their first game, where they were magnificent in the first half and then tapered off in the second half against SACK.

The Joes obviously entertained thoughts of breaking the hoodoo against the Petes at the end of the first half, but faltered. Once again the score line looks impressive, but the game was a lot closer than what the scores indicate.

If the Peterites are to take on tougher teams and win, they need to play consistently well as a cohesive unit and not rely on individual brilliances. In their number eight they have a potential match winner however this talent must be harnessed in a manner where the contribution is consistent and not as sporadic as it is now.

Similarly going by reports, Royal’s victory was anything but fluent. If they are to be considered as front runners, their consistency must improve. Trinity made a return to winning ways once again without much fluency.

All the school teams will get a breather as SL gets ready for the Asian five Nations games that will kick off on Easter Sunday. This will give the teams and the support staff the opportunity to reassess the first two weeks of play and hopefully iron out some of the deficiencies.

During the last week’s games, once again it was obvious that the quality of the refereeing must improve. The refereeing around the Rucks Mauls and in other broken play must improve. There were a number of instances, where the players did no retreat when one of their own had kicked the ball from behind them but simply opted to put their hands up.

This is not good enough and they must make every effort to move back and the referees must be watchful of such behaviour. There is no space for lazy runners in this modern era.

(The writer can be reached via [email protected].)