Royal and Petes remain unbeaten

The Royalists looked a well knit unit and watching them warm up before the game, with heavy emphasis on tackling, made me reflect on the words of Sir Colin Mead in a recent interview. Amongst the many comments he made, he pointed out that if you need tackling practice just before the game, you should not be in the team.

Royal had a distinct advantage in their forwards who were bigger and maybe fitter as well. They capitalised on this fact as evidenced by the many rolling mauls and fierce rucking. However their ploy to continuously drive forward with three of the big men was too predictable. Despite the superior weight they were not able to recycle quick ball and this permitted Science to organise their defences adequately.

In a number of instances, in a ruck situation the ball was clearly out and the Science players, possibly due to a lack of knowledge, did not attack the loose ball. Thus Royal was able to retain possession, organise their forwards and drive forward once more. There were also instances, where a Science player having made a tackle was still on his feet and yet chose not to play the ball, waiting for the ruck to form. This to my mind caused Science to lose out on a fair bit of possession.

Science snuffed many an attempt on their goal line and despite their own weight disadvantage kept the Royalists at bay. Science made many inroads into the Royal 22, but were unable to convert them into points due to a combination of a lack of finishing touches and possibly a vision or maybe even self belief.

I was surprised to see that the Royal full back, with a heavily strapped thigh, was declared fit to take the field. Within the first 10 minutes of play it was evident that he was a passenger, unable to move about freely. It was a shame that Science did not spot this and capitalise on this handicap.

The Royal three quarters were quite threatening in attack and were able to score at will when they made it to the opposition half. Whilst Royal looked good in attack, their defence was poor with the three quarters being guilty of letting the Science three quarters dictate terms, when they chose to run with the ball.

My player of the match was the Science No.  13, who wove his magic around the Royal three quarters. His runs were incisive and helped with some inept tackling and a lack of anticipation by the Royal three quarters he was definitely a force to be reckoned with. His partnership with the winger was a treat to watch and worth going a long way to watch again. Many a past Royal player grudgingly acknowledged that they were outplayed in this aspect of the game.

I had last week quite incorrectly predicted that the Trinity Lions would roar loudly in their den in Kandy against a somewhat patchy Peterite side. The Peterites were without their star centre and most had written off the Peterites indicating that a few key guys held the fortunes of the team in their hands. The Peterites rose up to the challenge magnificently and although the Trinitians did roar, they did not roar loud enough to result in victory.

It once again proves a point that when given the opportunity; there are youngsters willing to rise up to the challenge. Well done to the Peterites, and to all those who made it via the ‘Bamba Express’ I am sure that they got their money’s worth. The possibility of them having partied late into the night was evident as a few key personnel were not in action at the great ‘Peterite Walk 2012’ on Sunday morning. With this win the Peterites are in with a serious chance of regaining the tag of league champions. However they have a few hurdles to clear by way of the Royalists and maybe even Pathana.

This weekend will see some good games. Trinity will take on Pathana, the Joes will play Royal and DSS are billed to take on the Petes. Both the Royalist and the Joes have some burly forwards and it would be interesting to see who would gain the upper hand upfront. As I write this article, I am advised that the Trinity game is being moved to Sunday at Longdon place. It was with a deep sense of shock that we learned on Thursday morning of the untimely demise of the former Havies skipper Wasim Thajudeen under tragic circumstances. May his soul rest in peace.