Illegal Flying Wedge given a high-five in SLSR League

Dialog Schools Rugby League 2025 Week 7 Tactical Analysis Part I 

Kingswood vs Ananda

Trinity vs Isipathana

S. Thomas' vs St. Peter's

Wesley celebrate their victory against Royal

- Pix courtesy: thepapare.com -

Step by step, week to week, left right left, they all fall down, like toy Soldiers. Bit by bit, their Hearts torn apart, they fail to win, but the battle wages on, for the Schoolboy Soldiers. With Trinity College being the only undefeated side in the League, all gazes are now set on next week’s battle in the Hills against the mighty Wesley. While the elite rugby playing schools of yesteryears fell like a row of Dominoes last weekend, a dangerous play that was banned by World Rugby ten years ago, flew sky high staining the skyline that was decorated by vivid, colourful Kites by the Beach at Mount Lavinia. Details are elaborated in the relevant review below.

Kingswood hosting Ananda - 25 July:

The game kicked off with the home team trying to dominate proceedings in a rush, and as if the Sun was about to set an hour earlier, whereas the Anandians took matters calmly and remained composed, quite admirably. Three factors made it a low scoring half, although both teams strived to attack fiercely with every possession.

1.The constant sturdy defence formation and tackling of both teams. For instance, a strong front-on tackle by the Kingswood defence, not only forced a Knock Forward inside their 10, but saved a certain 7 points for them, while holding up another potential Grounding saved another 5.

 2.Kingswood’s array of penalties and poor Ball handling offered them very few chances to attack inside the visitors’ grid, instead gifted the latter the majority of Ball procession and the chance to Camp at the hosts’ front yard.

 3.Although Ananda occupied foreign territory during most of the former half, they could not finish their onslaughts due to conceding many penalties inside the Kingswood half, assisted by some sound defence by the latter.

As the stats indicate, there was not much of a difference between the two teams, thus the slender lead. Although Kingswood improved their Ball handling in the latter half, their discipline worsened as usual, but their dominating mindset was elevated to another level, testing the visitors with their rapid attacking moves throughout. Nevertheless, Ananda was confidently leading 16-12 at the beginning of the last quarter, but then lost their way in the last 14 minutes only. This is because they conceded 6 penalties in that duration, which averages to a penalty every 2 minutes and 20 seconds, and Kingswood was able to score Tries off two of those penalties (offsides) committed inside the visitors’ half.

A remarkable aspect to note is that, while Ananda defence seemed a bit weary in the last quarter, the Randles Hill Lads seemed as if they had just commenced the game, depicting super-agile attacking spirits, which the visitors couldn’t comprehend as in the former half. Another noteworthy play from Kingswood, was a clearance kick executed from behind the Tryline during the last minutes of the game, that found touch very close to the 50m mark, an endeavour, our National Rugby team can only accomplish in their dreams.

Result:  Kingswood dominate last quarter 22-16

Trinity hosting Isipathana - 26 July:

Trinity College Kandy underlined their dominance by stamping their giant Paws to smash the Green Machine into bits, and promptly returned the debris to the Manufacturer for a complete overhaul and redesign of a new model. The Green Machine proved rusty, hence malfunctioned and required severe servicing before this crucial game that was overlooked by their Maker.

It was the substandard Ball handling that primarily let Pathana down in the first half, disrupting their onslaughts deep inside the Lions’ Den, in addition to a few others that resulted in them losing possession, although their game discipline was pristine.

 Trinity’s League winning defence was another huge factor in this half, that kept the Greens at bay, while one of their tackles quite close to their Tryline, saved a certain Try. Trinity didn’t require penalties to breach the Pathana defence twice in this half.  They broke through the right corner defence to score a converted Try, and another off an interception followed by a kick & chase to no man’s land inside Green Land.

It was Isipathana’s high penalty count which held them back in the decisive half, where they committed at least 6 offenses in their own grid, while the Red Card they received on the 41st minute didn’t help their onslaughts either. As per our “points conceded per penalty” ratio explored in our earlier analysis, Trinity rugby was able to defend its mistakes admirably, which NONE of the other teams can accomplish in this League, or in any recent Leagues for that matter, which also happens to be a hallmark feature of a Champion Team.

Result:  Rusty Machine breaks down 10-32

S. Thomas’ hosting St. Peter’s – 26 July:

A thrilling nailbiter unveiled at the College by the Sea, that made it a nerve-wrecking close encounter than what was expected initially. The main reason for this being that the Bamba Brigade had stepped up their game a notch or two, and had miraculously ironed out 3 of their painful shortcomings prior to this game.

• Doubling of their penalty count in the latter half (Eg. 5 plus 10)
• Two thirds of their penalties being conceded in own half (Eg. 10)
• Scrappy place kicking where even the straight ones cannot be slotted-in

 Fixing the above issues allowed Pete’s to play a competitive game of rugby that offered them a decent chance to come out victorious. They attacked inside STC’s half from the outset, and scored off a ‘not releasing’ offence by the hosts, and then soon followed up with another converted Try in the prior half. Their Ball handling was an absolute Peach with just a solitary unforced error in the entire game, that even international teams could only dream of achieving. The Brigade set up a Rock-solid Wall of defence against a series of pick ‘n drive onslaughts in the latter half, where their fringe defence at the Tryline was absolutely mind blowing, as they valiantly held up two groundings by the Thomians, while scoring 2 Tries for themselves off the nifty skill. Their abruptly refined place kicking slotted in 2 difficult Conversions almost from the edges of the Touchlines.

 However, the following deficiencies diminished their advantage over the hosts.

• Two penalty touch kicks were kicked inside the playing Field, virtually reducing STC’s total 7 penalty offerings to 5
• Guilty of two crooked throws, and one of which that occurred close to SPC’s 5m was used to score a Try with, assisted further by a few SPC offenses
• A Conversion, right in front of the Posts was forced to be missed by the charging Thomians
• In addition, STC scored 3 more Tries directly off Peter’s offenses, viz. ‘not rolling away’, ‘hands in Ruck’, and multiple offsides.

 A critical and controversial play by the Peterites overshadowed a wonderful evening of friendly rivalry, when they scored their second converted Try using the infamous “Flying Wedge” move, that has been banned by World Rugby since 2015, due to its dangerous nature that could inflict critical injuries to the Players involved. A “Flying Wedge” occurs when more than two attacking players with the Ball are latched or bound to each other, and make their way towards the opposition’s Tryline. Regrettably, the young but promising Referee who officiated this game overlooked this foul play at approximately 18 minutes and 30 seconds, where three players were pre-bound in a pick and drive attack. World Rugby’s sanction for this play is a penalty against the offending team, however, SPC proceeded to score a converted Try off this move.

 What is even more shocking is the fact that two well renowned and respected World Rugby Educators - Head Coach Sir. Sanath Martis and Forwards Coach Sir. Rajeew Perera - had coached the Peterites to go ahead with this illegal move, while being fully aware of the dire implications associated with it.

 What’s done is done, but now the onus is on the Sri Lanka Society of Rugby Football Referees (SLSRFR), and what their response would be for allowing such an illegal and dangerous play banned by World Rugby to proceed. The right thing to do would be to formally contact both Schools and the Media to acknowledge the slipup, and then rectify the blunder by adjusting the final score accordingly, although it will not affect the end result of the game. If they choose not to do this, then they set an incorrect precedent for the forthcoming matches for teams to use this play, which guarantees them successful Tries from close proximity to the Trylines. If and when that happens, then the SLSRFR has to allow this illegal play to continue, as otherwise they may have to potentially face Lawsuits by Schools that are disallowed to do so, by being penalised, and as a result lost their games, citing that it was allowed in a previous game. On the contrary, SLSRFR cannot continue to allow the “Flying Wedge”, as it directly violates World and Asia Rugby mandates, and shall only earn its scrutiny. A stutter or indecision here could put not only the progress, but also the outcome of the whole League in jeopardy!

 In conformance to the WR Laws, we have adjusted the final scores in this review.

Result: Thomians outdo Peter’s 28-19

Royal hosting Wesley – 26 July:

To the downright delight of the rugby lovers of the Country, Royal College Colombo turned up for this fixture in an attempt to strike down the mighty Blue Thunder, following their triumphant toppling of the League Champs of yesteryear, just a week before. However, their quest crumpled due to a few shortcomings in their skills and composure that are reviewed in this analysis.

 Both sides attacked furiously from the get go, that when one team attacked, they mostly looked dangerous with an imminent threat to score, until their efforts were thwarted by their own blunders.

• Royal’s knock forward disrupted their attack inside Wesley 22
• Wesley’s stealing skills forced a ‘holding on’ offense that halted an imminent Royal try inside Wesley’s 5m
• Wesley missed an attacking chance due to a passing error that caused loss of possession, inside Royal’s 22

 It seems like the Wesley Camp acknowledged the sole reason for their setback on the weekend prior, which was highlighted as, “not passing on time” in our post-match analysis, which was meticulously addressed in this game. In fact, this analysis concludes that this match was won by Wesley in the 2nd minute of the game, by a timely, snappy and breathtaking offload by the Centre to the left Winger to score a converted Try. Spectators flood the Pavilions to watch Tries scored off timely, last millisecond, offloads such as these.

 Soon Royal followed up with an unconverted Try, off a Wesley penalty for ‘offside’ while attacking ferociously deep inside Wesley territory. The hosts were able to confine the visitors to a solitary Try in the former half due to their honourable discipline of just 3 offenses. 

 Royal got lucky in the second half with a Scrum inside Wesley’s 22, when the play was stopped to verify the wellbeing of a Wesleyite following a collision, which they used to score a converted Try with. Thereafter Royal’s continuous indiscipline awarded the reins of control to Wesley, for the latter to capitalise on them and score three more Tries. Out of the 8 penalties that Royal conceded in their diminishing half, 2 Tries were scored off the only 2 offside offenses committed inside their grid. Both were kicked to touch to form the unstoppable Wesley Mauls, that Royal ‘actually’ had no defence tactics against. Thereafter, an array of back-to-back penalties gifted Wesley their last Try to seal the deal for them.

One of Wesley’s noteworthy achievements in this game is to have submerged below 10 in their total offenses count down to 8 for the first time this season, which granted them one more edge over their opponents. 

Wesley surge past Royal’s indiscipline in 2nd half 24-17

Footnote:

Though we love to, unfortunately we are unable to analyse all 9 games played during the weekends due to time limitations, and therefore compelled to accommodate only around 5 reviews each week.

(The analyst can be reached at [email protected].)