Wednesday Aug 13, 2025
Wednesday, 13 August 2025 00:50 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
As the final week dawned on us to end our merry journey of three months, exciting encounters consisting of twists, turns and last-act shocks, dazzled the last weekend of rugby, leading to the perfect climax that this season deserved. All these unfolding despite the League Champions being already known, was a real surprise treat for all the rugby lovers, who weren’t expecting their last weekend to be so extravagant. Thanks to all the untiring coaching teams, and ALL the School Boys, who have worked tirelessly, pouring and sacrificing their sweat, blood, bones, muscles, studies and their wellbeing, towards the rich traditions of Sri Lanka Schools Rugby.
Wesley hosting S. Thomas’ – 9 Aug:
Wesley vs. S. Thomas
This encounter turned out to be one of the perfect climaxes to an epic season of schools’ rugby, with the Thomians stepping up some of their skills along with their game, in order to level up to the mighty Wesleyites, and to indulge the spectators with a nerve-wrecking game of high-octane rugby. The Thomians returned to their true form of Anuranga’s Trademark rugby, that had gone AWOL since their game against Isipathana. The ability of both teams to score at will against their opponents’ mediocre defences, meant that the team that struck synchronously with the Clock, shall also stick to the Runners-up title. In essence, the Thomians had just one minute to save their world, but their defence could not hold back an extremely determined and persistent final onslaught unleashed by the Double Blue Thunder.
The game kicked off with both sides playing their hearts out, scoring alternately, some assisted by penalties and the others by persistent attacking. Some Tries were not scored even after getting so close to the opponents’ Goal Lines due to knock forwards.
The reason for STC’s low scoring despite Wesley’s high penalty count is because, most of them were awarded as back-to-back advantages when the visitors were attacking inside the hosts’ front yard. For a clearer picture, follow a list of key highlights of the opening half.
The other Tries were scored off fine attacking efforts that neither team could defend.
By perusing the above stats, it is crystal clear that the Thomian defence is quite fragile indeed. Further synopsis of the latter half is given below.
In summary, it is a world wonder as to how such poor execution of clearance kicks combined with inferior defence formations, and a truckload of missed tackles, got the Thomians so close to winning the Runners-up Title?
It must be stated that the Double Blues brawled bravely resembling 23 courageous Spartans for a hard-fought win, and Abdul Haadhi is truly a Braveheart of his generation, and the hero of this Season, professing and proving that courage seldom manifests from one’s physical structure alone.
Result: Wesley struck with the Clock 43-38
Royal hosting Isipathana – 9 Aug:
Royal vs. Isipathana
A game that proceeded disguised as a one-sided business during most part of the game, suddenly capsized to the shocking delight of the home crowd. Royal College was trailing by some measurement in lightyears throughout the game, but somehow found a Wormhole or maybe even two, to not only shrink the mammoth distance, but also to slingshot beyond Pathana’s score in warp drive to seize the day. How this actually transpired in a rugby sense is the motive of this analysis.
The reason behind the storyline of the former half is quite simple but twofold. Primarily, Isipathana played a carefully planned and methodically executed possession game, resisting the tempting urge to kick the Ball away, after many many moons; in fact, maybe since last season. In addition, they were consciously focussed in curtailing their offenses that didn’t offer the hosts many chances to attack.
The second reason is that Royal intentionally played a passive game, solely on first Gear throughout the opening half, making close observers curious as to what their game plan was. The next part is purely speculative, but the analysis still proceeds to go out on a Limb, nevertheless. Royal may have used this game as a practice match before the Bradby, to find out if they can manage a strong second half comeback game, upon mentally destabilising their opponents after getting their Brains to think that they have already won, and thereby subconsciously convincing them to play a relaxed game, that could pave way for many mistakes to be made. This, in conjunction with the exact scenario that Trinity was in, in the last quarter of their match against Wesley, could have been the key driving factor for this experimental bold move. If you had noticed Dushanth Lewke at the half time whistle when Pathana led 24-3, he was seen to be cool as a Cucumber, and calm as before a Storm.
The above stats summarise the complete tale of the second half in which 9 penalties out of the 11 were conceded inside Isipathana’s half, which proves Royal College strategists’ theory to be 100% accurate.
Result: Classic tale of the Turtle and the Hair 34-31
Trinity hosting St. Peter’s – 10 Aug:
Trinity vs. St. Peter's
Regardless of the fact that our forecast for this fixture was accurate, and thereby becoming a reality, the officiating of this game looked quite suspicious from the outset, and it only got worse as the game progressed, finally to reach a conclusive opinion that this match was rigged.
Upon carrying out tactical analysis of rugby games during the past few years, the abilities, shortcomings and the performance of Referees were also duly observed, although they weren’t part of the writeups. Due to this, it is now possible to predict what penalty signal is coming right after the whistle is blown, based on the respective body positioning of each Referee, while they blow the whistle with the straight arm penalty signal on display. It is also reasonably possible to deduce if errors were made by accident or on purpose, based on the historical patterns of the respective Officials, in relation to their nature, competence and consistency.
This game was officiated by the experienced Kelum Sandaruwan, who had a reasonably good season, committing only a few errors per game, well within the allowable error threshold. He also officiated some games exceptionally well this season, possibly making it the best year of his officiating career. However, his intent and actions were questionable since the game commenced, as he got the most basic calls wrong, and acted as if he didn’t see some of the critical errors made by the Peterites, completely turning a blind eye towards them, while cross checking some of the others with the Touch Judges even though he was in prefect positions to adjudge them. Tries scored by Trinity was something that he mostly ensured to be checked with his assistants. The voluntary blind eye shown in this game hugely benefited St. Peter’s, while making it impossible for Trinity to win it fairly, and are provided below for the readers’ personal analysis, and to draw their own conclusions. The time provided below are the game clock time as per the coverage by Papare.
Aided by the above detailed descriptions, the readers are encouraged to watch the recording and come to their own conclusions, regardless of which fraternity they belong to. A tactical analysis of this game is utterly useless when there has been no fair play in this encounter, and it is quite evident that it was dishonestly manipulated by Kelum Sandaruwan. Although this column does not stand for crowd violence or unruly behaviour under any circumstance, the human tolerance level has a defined boundary, especially when dignity and rights are violated, as there are no ways to counter it or change the outcome. Since referees are protected on and off the Field of play, and then promptly covered and protected from media outage thereafter as well, are they always going to have the last laugh, by dragging Rugby in Sri Lanka down to the Sewers they crawled out of?
Result: Biased officiating calls for the match to be nullified
(The Analyst can be reached at [email protected].)
Pics courtesy of thepapare.com
Discover Kapruka, the leading online shopping platform in Sri Lanka, where you can conveniently send Gifts and Flowers to your loved ones for any event including Valentine ’s Day. Explore a wide range of popular Shopping Categories on Kapruka, including Toys, Groceries, Electronics, Birthday Cakes, Fruits, Chocolates, Flower Bouquets, Clothing, Watches, Lingerie, Gift Sets and Jewellery. Also if you’re interested in selling with Kapruka, Partner Central by Kapruka is the best solution to start with. Moreover, through Kapruka Global Shop, you can also enjoy the convenience of purchasing products from renowned platforms like Amazon and eBay and have them delivered to Sri Lanka.
Discover Kapruka, the leading online shopping platform in Sri Lanka, where you can conveniently send Gifts and Flowers to your loved ones for any event including Valentine ’s Day. Explore a wide range of popular Shopping Categories on Kapruka, including Toys, Groceries, Electronics, Birthday Cakes, Fruits, Chocolates, Flower Bouquets, Clothing, Watches, Lingerie, Gift Sets and Jewellery. Also if you’re interested in selling with Kapruka, Partner Central by Kapruka is the best solution to start with. Moreover, through Kapruka Global Shop, you can also enjoy the convenience of purchasing products from renowned platforms like Amazon and eBay and have them delivered to Sri Lanka.