Royal battle Petes this week

The only two unbeaten teams in the schools league this season Royal and SPC will battle it out at the Royal Complex this weekend. Whilst they are technically unbeaten, they have had some very close calls over the past few weeks.

The Petes were given a jolt by the Joes and once again last week by SACK, whilst the game against Science was anything but easy. Royal too had a rather torrid time against the Joes and last week had a scare against Kingswood. Their win against Science was anything but clinical. The points table makes interesting reading.

Pathana after their rampage against DSS and Science where they amassed 161 points have collected the second highest number of points. They have been tight in defence as the numbers indicate giving away only 83 points. Royal has conceded the most, possibly indicating a weaker defence.

However, on the day all these numbers and statistics will come to nothing, as the team that is able to hold its nerve and play quality rugby will prevail.

The Petes have this season staged some marvellous resurrecting rugby and have gone on to win even the diehard supporter has given up. As one ardent old boy quipped the other day, “machang, this type of tension is not good for the heart”.

Both sides have a few players suffering from injuries, and it is not known as who will be fit enough to take the field this week against such gruelling opposition and that too in such a high pressure match. A loss in this game will not necessarily mean the end of the road for either RC or SPC.

The Brady first leg is due the following week as is the Pathana/SPC game. The current weather conditions may not be conducive for fast and open rugby. Adjusting to the conditions underfoot will be a challenge, and the hallmark of a quality team will determine the same.

The issue of referees has been the topic of the week. Referees can and will make mistakes. It happens in international rugby as well. However this does not give any spectator the right to manhandle the referee like what happened last week in the hill capital. There is a process to handle any transgressions by the referee, and that protocol must be followed.

At last week’s Pathana/Science match I pointed out a few errors on the field by the referee to the CMO of SL Rugby and was told that this particular referee gets nervous in the field of play.

In high pressure games, it is important to have competent referees, and I hope that this will be the case in the RC/SPC game as spectators pay money to watch quality rugby on the field and not a comedy of errors by the referee.  

Speaking to knowledgeable sources in the rugby arena, I am advised that there is a dearth of quality referees in the country. Thus there is an urgent need for the Rugby Union to wake up and take some positive action with the future in mind.

As of now I can only think of only two referees who could be considered as acceptable, and obviously they cannot be looked upon to handle all the games. With the Club season starting this week as well, the dearth will be more pronounced than before.

In this respect it would be heartening to see some players who have recently hung up their boots take up the whistle. My mind goes back to cricket where Kumar Dharmasena after the World Cup triumph took up to umpiring and is doing a great job. We need more of such individuals to handle proceedings in the middle with aplomb.

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