Saturday May 16, 2026
Saturday May 16, 2026
Thursday, 7 May 2026 04:35 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Although, a few of the second week games failed to conclude with upsets as anticipated, some underperforming sides with potential, like Science, DSS and STC stepped up their game. We also saw many teams with much improved ball handling compared to Club rugby, enthusiastically executing their short punts and cross kicks, looking to widen their attacking horizons.
While Trinity College put up that amazing, one-of-a-kind performance at the Knockout final, the undisclosed disclaimer was, “Please do not try these tricks at home, as these are stunts performed by professional athletes who have been trained on these skills for many years. Trinity College cannot accept any responsibility or liability for mishaps or backfiring encountered upon mimicking these tricks.”
Any entity that is serious about securing Trophies chooses a pragmatic approach in ensuring that all the required skill sets to defend and attack, all the different variations of attacks and defences that prevail in schools’ rugby, are acquired during the pre-season. Nothing drastic can ever be done once the season begins, except for some fine tuning, or minor error corrections, if at all.
Although it was heartening to observe various sides enthusiastically mimicking these finer skills, sadly they were never executed to precision, mostly hindering the respective teams’ onslaughts and momentum, while some resulting in pure self-destruction. A word of advice would be to never use these skills-in-progress in public, until they are perfected. But, one can be rest assured that it is never going to happen overnight. So, keep practicing until one day your team is ready, and then you can use the element of surprise to stun a tough opponent, and seize the day.
The analysis of this encounter is quite simple. The Bamba Brigade has the amazing ability to attack frantically and score Tries, even if the opposition sneezes while being in possession of the ball. They are very sharp, very nimble, very fit, and extremely energetic until the last long whistle. Joes’ Mauls couldn’t move them even by a millimetre, thus had to revert to their Backline, all the time. However, Pete’s rush defence constantly kept pushing Joes’ Backline back, forcing them to stutter and falter, which was used to turnover possession and score. Joes made a ton of blunders in the second half that allowed the hosts to cement them in that half. Following are a few pointers to improve each team.
Rejuvenating Joes:
Short Punts - Joes’ short punts faithfully failed to land on no-man’s land, hence landed them in serious trouble, as opposed to helping them attack deep inside opposition territory. It also resulted in a few Tries being conceded. New skills shouldn’t be unveiled at key matches, unless they have attained a certain level of excellence in execution.
Support Play – Joes conceded 4 ‘holding-on’ penalties while attacking inside Peter’s grid, indicating a severe drought in support play that abruptly terminated four scoring opportunities.
Premature Passes – The three quarters were seen making premature passes by default, where they could have advanced the gain line by at least a stride or two
High Tackles – The smaller size of the Peterites is no excuse for 3 high tackles by the taller Joes. Requires immediate rectification to ensure player safety.
Pump up Pete’s:
Side Stepping – The Peterites are not trained to side step soon after receiving the high ball, which constantly resulted in thumping tackles. Side stepping is a crucial skill in evasive rugby, that helps avoid unnecessary contact, while minimising injuries and fatigue.
Penalty Count – Conceding over 20 penalties, mostly when defending the Tryline illegally, and stamping on the spirit and values of rugby, against a feeble opponent may not pose any threat for now, except to the integrity of a team. Since bad habits die hard, they are often accompanied by the Grim Reaper at crucial fixtures against stronger sides, at which point there is no redemption through short-term penance, but only disappointment and misery remains.
Result: Frail Joes keep derby alive with self-sacrifice 19-50
Thurstanites cast a mesmerising spell on the Royal Tuskers that made them react like cats on a hot tin roof, and petrified the latter’s fanbase so much so, that they eventually conditioned their minds for a possible upset, as the game progressed. The hosts pounced on the visitors from the word go, applying immense pressure, mostly when the visitors were in possession, that ultimately resulted in Royal committing frequent errors, with which Thurstan struck back. Royal continued to preserve its reverence in game discipline, yet faltered in many other areas amounting to a sum of 8 errors, excluding offenses, in the stumbling half, which was quite uncharacteristic of the Tuskers.
However once the nerves settled and the Tuskers calmed down, they came back strongly capitalising on the hosts’ mistakes to score Tries. The following is a summary of how Royal was allowed back into the game, and managed to overcome their overzealous, next-door neighbours.
Thurstan was pumped up from the onset, with excellent tackling, offering the
However, Thurstan eventually allowed Royal to score a Try by conceding consecutive penalties
Thurstan scored its first Try by successfully charging down a box kick inside Royal’s 22
Thurstan continued to infuse panic in the Royal camp, forcing them to make mistakes, and scored the second converted Try
Just before melons, Thurstan showed lack of focus, when two defenders missed their tackles as they rushed forward, allowing the ball carrier to conveniently pass through without a scratch, for a converted Try
Thurstanites brought their shiny new bus, loaded with offside offenses into this game as well, where their defence rushed before the ball was picked up from the ground at the breakdowns, that cost them at least two Tries in this game. This was something that should have been corrected following their last game, where similar mistakes cost them dearly.
Royal also scored off a knock-on inside Thurstan’s half, aided by a subsequent penalty advantage for a Try in the corner, that was free of defenders
Royal scored its last Try off a crooked throw by Thurstan inside their half, and a subsequent ‘not rolling away’ penalty advantage, facilitated by another completely abandoned corner post
Thurstan lost a couple of chances to score Tries by sealing the ball, as the latcher kept falling over the ball while picking and driving
Result: Thurstan thrust Tuskers to their triumph 15-40
Donz pulled their socks up, to put up their best performance of this season against a strong Isipathana outfit, who’s improved tryline defence, especially against Pick and Drives, didn’t get DS the result they wished for. However, the positive is that the phase of ‘lacklustre performance’ is now over and done with, hence DS could look forward to a positive season from hereon.
The Donz not only maintained impeccable stats in game discipline and ball handling, they also showed real intent and purpose to precisely execute what they were coached to, which was something seldom observed before. However, some of their other, but few shortcomings, turned against them, which the Greens used to score Tries with.
DS could have led by at least 18 points to 14 at lemons, but they missed a penalty kick, while a Try was disallowed, as the referees thought it was knocked-on while being grounded, quite contrary to what others perceived it to be
DS executed some patient, focused, fine, attacking moves in the opening half, cleverly outmanoeuvring the green defenders, to score two dazzling Tries, out of which only one was deemed legit
In the strong opinion of the analyst, DS made the first mistake in opting to take the first penalty that was missed, and the second penalty that was slotted, as opposed to kicking them to Touch, or scrumming down. This is because Isipathana can never be defeated by penalty points, and it is a mystery as to how Head Coach Asela hasn’t learnt this by now, even after the trot of losses at the hands of the greens, ever since Donz stepped into the top Division.
Pathana rattled and weakened the opposition defence, by working the ball quickly from one side of the field to the other to score a spectacular Try. It should be noted that DS didn’t facilitate this onslaught or scoring with their mistakes.
Donz scored a hard-fought penalty Try, yet its progress filled with stunning moments composed of some nifty moves. It was adjudicated a penalty Try as a green defender jumped high, and deliberately attacked the ball carrier’s neck, for which he received only a yellow card
Although the greens accelerated their offense count in the latter half, they were able to defend most of them successfully, while DS foiled a few chances on their own. This was quite similar to how Trinity played in the beginning of last season, where although their defending skills were astonishing, the mode of defence was despicable, as repeated deliberate offenses tarnish the spirit of the game.
Isipathana scored two converted Tries by counter attacking after two knock-ons that occurred at DS lineout throws
The hosts scored one more Try after counter attacking off a ‘sealing the ball’ penalty
Complaints of rough play and deliberate harm were reported by the DS players, which included eye poking. Although video footage indicates some purposeful suspicious actions by Isipathana players, the evidence was inconclusive from the low-quality video available on Papare. The relevant authorities should obtain a 4k version of the video from Papare, and investigate this matter seriously, as these actions could lead to permanent disabilities or lifetime ailments, if true. Moreover, these couldn’t be baseless allegations due to the following reasons.
1.Regardless of the questionable behavioural nature of some matured DS spectators, team DS has always maintained very high standards in discipline, sportsmanship and honour, even after losing close games, and this was the first time such complaints were made by their players.
2.Isipathana’s last year captain was yellow carded last season for eye gouging, with clear evidence available on video as well
Thus, there could be some truth to the claims made by the DS team, hence should be taken seriously, and investigated thoroughly.
Result: Pathana defence precludes DS 33-10
The scientists had saved up the stellar performance of the season, to show off to their home crowd, where they dismantled top dogs Zahira College, combining sheer game discipline with intelligent attacking gameplay, for the most part of the opening half. However, as they eventually abandoned their sanctity, Zahira was able to creep up behind them, to ultimately prevail over them.
The stats of the former half don’t really paint a clear picture of what made Science’s position strong when they led 19-nil, as it was later polluted by indiscipline, towards melons.
The scientists scored their inaugural Try off three consecutive offenses lined-up by Zahira, all the way from science’s 40m to their front porch, as a peace offering to the hosts
A series of mistakes by Zahira led to the second Try being scored. What began with a penalty touch kick that failed to clear the touchline, and zoned-in quite close to the hosts’ 5m line, ended with a ‘high tackle’ committed by Zahira close to their own 22m, that allowed Science to score a rather uncontested Try.
A knock-on by Zahira while contesting the ball close to their 30m, followed up with a scrum, that was backed by a weak defence formation, facilitating Science to zip through a wide-open space, that was wide enough for an Elephant to pass through, to score an easy converted Try
Zahira scored the first Try off a ‘holding on’ offense committed inside Science’s grid, and then by attacking from the subsequent 22m line out
Zahira scored the second Try off consecutive penalties conceded by science before melons
Although Zahira ran up its penalty count in the closing session, they put up a much better defensive effort, making Science slog at every given opportunity, and persuading them to opt for two easy penalties, and settling for just 6 points in that half
Zahira scored a Try utilising two consecutive penalties, viz. ‘off feet’ and then ‘closing gap’, off the subsequent lineout
The match turning Try came off an error at the hands of the science scrum half, as he fell prey to a severely contested 5m science scrum. Zahira scored the decisive, converted Try when the opposition scrum half failed to collect the wobbling ball cleanly, instead letting it roll backwards into the in-goal area, where Zahira happily pounced on it.
Result: Science slumber in own scrum 25-31
Both teams came up with improved and refined rugby that portrayed an upward curve, with the positive indication of things looking up for them.
As the stats indicate, the P&L statement adds up without further parameters or explanations.
The Thomians scored their first Try by counter attacking off a penalty Touch kick by Kingswood, that failed to hit its intended target
The visitors scored two Tries, taking advantage of the lineouts from two full-out clearance kicks by Kingswood
Kingswood scored a converted Try off a STC knock-on, while catching a high ball inside their own 22
The Thomians suddenly attained sainthood in the final session, conceding only a solitary penalty
Just as in their previous game, STC’s lineouts diminished to an utter disaster. A whole pre-season’s worth of work may have to be repeated in order to rectify this critical skill gap, if not, teams like Zahira and Pathana could make a complete mockery of the Thomian lineouts, if it isn’t already.
Thora used deceptive footwork to confuse the Kingswood defenders, to find and creep through an open blindside channel to score a corner Try
STC scored a Try under the post off a Kingswood knock-on, close to the latter’s 5m line
The visitors scored their last Try upon collecting Kingswood’s restart kick, and once again finding an open space through the blindside to infiltrate Kingswood’s 22, and then continued their attack to score on the left side of the post
Although the total loss of possession is similar, STC lost only one while giving up real estate, allowing them to effectively defend those blunders, whereas a good majority of Kingswood’s loss of possessions also resulted in them back-pedalling to the warmth of their home, where they had to face heated confrontations
In summary, the following improvements could be looked at for each team.
Randles
While Kingswood has improved their game discipline, it has to be furthered without impacting their natural appetite to play non stop attacking rugby
3 yellow cards are way too much for one game, and should be completely eradicated
Full out clearance kicks cost teams dearly in the modern-day rugby, hence should be eliminated completely
2 penalties for stamping/trampling in one game cannot be a coincidence, and should looked into by the coaching unit
4 holding-on offenses indicate unforthcoming support play, or incorrect method of going to ground, that should be also looked into
Lavinia
STC has to build up its lineout skills from scratch, as all coaching done from previous years have failed miserably. They must unlearn what they know, and relearn the skill to affirm retention, if not turnovers.
A side that was a role model for reliable support play during the past two years, has lost its core competency, thereby becoming far less cohesive this season. 50% of the sanctioned penalties were ‘holding-on’, which indicates severe shortcoming in their support play, which is in sheer need to be enhanced immediately.
Their ball handling has been improved considerably from the previous games, but maintaining this form in future games is not optional for their survival
Result: Thora’s 2nd half abstinence pacifies Kingswood in 33-12
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.
Pix courtesy of www.thepapare.com
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