Green Machine ends first round well

By Nimal Luxshman

On the basis of past performance of the two teams, many thought  Isipathana College rugby team would beat the Wesley College, popularly known as the Double Blues, quite  comfortably in their inter school league rugby encounter played at the Havelock Park, on Saturday. However, that was not going to be the case, as the coaching staff of Wesley seemed to have done their homework extremely well.

Their main strategy app-eared to be to retain possession with the forwards and prevent the speedy three quarters of the GreenMachine from resorting to display their usual flair for fast and open rugby.

The strategy by Wesley definitely served them well, and they were seen gaining territorial advantage on a couple of occasions. Whenever the Double Blues made inroads to the Green's territory, with the “pick and run" ploy by their forwards, they forced the Green Machine to commit numerous errors which resulted in Wesley being awarded two penalties within kickable range. Wesley converted both opportunities into points. 

That resulted in Wesley leading 6-5 before “lemons” at one stage, much to the delight of their fans. However, it was the Green Machine which opened scoring in the match with an unconverted try.                                                                                                                                            

 The style of play by the Green Machine was somewhat different yesterday, with their three quarters being starved of possession. However, the stout defense put up by their forwards prevented the Wesley forwards, who looked threatening on several occasions, from crossing the goal line. 

The ability of the Green Machineto defend was put to test in this match on several occasions. Their tackling made it difficult for the well-knit Wesley forwards to have their own way.                                                                                   

The Green Machine committed a series of handling errors, maybe the highest they committed during this season so far. On two occasions their backhand passes too resulted in forward passes. Their lines out too were untidy and were full of errors yesterday. This made them opt for scums on several occasions.

On the whole, though the Green Machine won, by 24-11, the gallant fight put forth by the Weslyites must be commended. Wesley, however, kicked the ball past the opponent's goal line on two occasions when they had to kick from midfield to resume the game. On another occasion instead of kicking to touch, off a penalty, the ball was kicked past the opponent's goal line. These proved to be costly mistakes for Wesley.                                                                                                                                         

It appears that there is a need for the Green Machine to go back to their drawing boards, look at their performance in this match and iron out the unusually high number of errors they committed.                                                 

Though winning all their matches in the first round of the league this season, the Green Machine cannot be complacent in the second round as they are slated to meet two very strong opponents, namely Royal and St. Peter’s, in the remaining league matches. Both these opponents will be tough for the Greens as both teams have been successful in their matches played so far.