The fall of the sluggish Titan

Dialog Schools Rugby League 2024 – Week 7 tactical analysis

One of the two Titans fell, but only due to their own folly, which makes one wonder if they were worthy of being tagged Titans at all? Anyhow, the Tags were based on last season’s performances, but the Tags for this season are up for grabs once again, with the Green Machine showing clear signs of emerging to join the cream of ‘Segment A’. Although many other encounters showed promise last weekend, most of them ended up being one-sided affairs, hence only 3 games are analysed here.

Royal hosting Peter’s – 27 July:

The defending League Champions ran Twisters around the Tuskers, to effect the perfect storm and bury Royal Rugby 6-feet under in their own “Jurassic” Park, and in front of a demoralised and mourning home crowd.

You don’t throw a Bone to a Dog, and then expect to grab it back. You don’t fling Seeds at a Roadrunner, and then insist on catching it. You also don’t kick the Ball to the Peterite Backline in hope of laying a finger or two on them. Royal Rugby along with Dushanth Lewke, got the basics of the Rugby philosophy all wrong this time, and played right into the hands of the Peterites, by electing to play their “Catch me if you can’ game in the first half, and therefore lost the crucial match due to it.

Although the saying goes as “little knowledge is dangerous”, it must be stressed that “too much knowledge could be overwhelming, and can lead to being counterproductive”. Regardless of the world of knowledge gained, one should always begin the thought process from the bottom line; ie. the basics. Forget the Rolling Mauls, forget the Tight-fives, forget the 6:2 Bomb Squads, forget the 140 minutes of Rugby that Royal is capable of playing; what is important is to first focus on the basics of Rugby that one plans to play, and then the basic tactics that one would employ to play around the opponent’s strengths, and finally the tactics that one would utilise to play to its own strengths. Unfortunately, Royal Rugby got this awfully wrong in this crucial encounter, and disappointed all of its die-hard and neutral followers alike.

Royal College did everything that was NOT supposed to be done against a team like SPC, and also opposed to what was prescribed in our preview last week (https://www.ft.lk/columns/Clash-of-the-Titans/4-764789). In other words, Royal attempted to put out the fire by pumping Gasoline! The hosts repeatedly kicked away possession into the visitors’ hands and conceded a Try almost every time, when their primary purpose was to appreciate and safeguard possession, especially in the first half.

As previewed last week, SPC excelled in pick and drive defences and showcased their best effort in this skill this season, even while defending their goal line for a prolonged period. They also managed to defend the Tuskers’ Mauls to perfection, other than on two occasions. They conceded 4 penalties within a few minutes from kick-off, and more than 7 penalties during the last 16 minutes of the game; Royal settled for 3 petty points during the first lapse, and scored the rest from the second. In total SPC gave away at least 18 penalties, and therefore could not win the game by, at least a 15-point margin as it was forecasted in the preview. In fact, there would have been no way that Peter’s could have won this game had Royal initially adopted the same tactic that they did in the second half.

Royal tried to play the possession game in the latter half, but it was way too late to catch up to a massive tally of 31 from 3, especially against the strong defence that the Brigade put up. The act was ticklishly synonymous to building a Dam after the floods have savaged the Paddy Fields. Upon acknowledging the unstoppable Try scoring ability of SPC, and accepting their own incapability of chasing them down, RC should have chosen to find touch in response to the penalty offered initially, instead of settling for 3 points. RC potentially lost 4 points here, because they were not confident enough to work their Maul from around SPC’s 10, at the very beginning of the game. RC also missed a relatively easy conversion (by its standards) of the last Try it scored. These lost points could have potentially gotten them to 28. With the Ton of SPC penalties offered to Royal, it would have been an easy win for the Tuskers, only if they had played the possession game, starting from the former half. If the loss wasn’t enough, the Tuskers displayed poor sportsmanship when they refused to congratulate the winners, as they ambled like Zombies, and looking away while being congratulated by the Peterites. It was a terrible sight to see post-match that absolutely murders the sole reason why sports are played. It is understandable that the players were totally dejected and possibly very angry with themselves and not the opposition, as there was no reason to be. However, they should have postponed their sulking sessions to a later time when they were alone. It is the responsibility of the respective Teachers, Coaches and Masters-in-charge to inculcate these vital values on an ongoing basis, to enable the civil and gentlemanly gestures to manifest naturally in the Boys.

Result Peter’s beat Royal 31-22 

Zahira hosting Thurstan – 27 July:

This encounter entitled itself for a review only because it wasn’t a one-sided affair. However, upon review it was revealed that it was a stop-start affair comprising of over 40 penalties and unforced errors, that probably gave all the gathered spectators locked Jaws due to the constant yawning.

Zahira College made an evenly contested match out of this encounter by lowering its standards of rugby to a mediocre ‘Segment B’ team. Lawlessness ruled the game as Zahira conceding at least 16 penalties and 12 unforced errors on a Desert dry pitch, putting their hands up for a voluntary demotion.

Thurstan excelled in Ball handing with just one unforced error, and they could have made the margin of defeat even less, had they managed to halve their penalty count.

Result: Zahira beat Thurstan 28-13

Vidyartha hosting Wesley – 28 July:

It was an absolutely terrifying battle for survival for the Double Blues at the Tigers’ own Den at Nittawala, as the hosts pounced on every single opportunity they got, disallowing the visitors to relax even for a brief moment. The Kandy Tigers played the first half at lightning speed, actioning a majority of their successive phases of plays within milliseconds, with absolutely no breathing space permitted for the double blues. This forced the visitors to commit unlimited offenses throughout the game, awarding infinite number of chances for the hosts to attack, but the latter failed to infiltrate the double solid defence of the Blues, sufficient number of times.

Vidyartha maintained decent statistics with 9 offenses and 4 unforced errors in the whole game, while Wesley aced the tally with 23 and 6 respectively, along with 3 yellow cards as certificates to show for their indiscipline. In addition, the Tigers forced 4 knock-ons with their hard tackling to make Wesley’s Ball handling look quite inferior. With the complete contrast in stats, how on earth did Wesley manage to beat Vidyartha would be the million-dollar question?

To begin with the positives, Wesley did travel up to the Hills with a well-defined plan to contain the speeding striped Cats. Their unwavering defence formation almost always trapped the sprinters; their effective tackling pinned the Tigers down, rendering them immobile, long enough. Sadly, their defence tactics did not align with the core value of Rugby, viz, integrity; in essence, honesty and fair play. “A team must compete with honesty by giving the opposition team a fair chance to compete”. Wesley committed at least 15 offenses while defending inside their own territory, very close to their goal line, and 7 of them were offside offenses. The constant flashing of the yellow card by the Referee seldom stopped the visitors from infringing, as they continued with the undesirable game tactics until the very end. 

In the writer’s opinion, the core values of rugby are of paramount importance than a win. The proclaimed winners would now have to reflect deeply and determine if this victory was indeed worthier than their integrity, as they rarely gave a fair chance for Vidyartha to compete, especially when the latter was attacking. The conclusion they arrive at would shape the future of the Srilankan mindset. Therefore, all Schools authorities should also begin to think about this prudently.

Result: Vidyartha scored 20. Wesley scored 34, but failed to uphold the values of Rugby.

(The writer can be reached at [email protected])