Fijians absent from Sri Lankan squad

Tuesday, 24 February 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Local rugby The local rugby scene has appeared to have lost its fizz after the political events of the first week of January this year. With two of the clubs pulling out at the start of the second round citing financial and other issues, the race is now on between three big teams – Navy, Kandy and the Havies. As anticipated, Kandy and Navy sailed through quite comfortably over the weekend. The only shock result was the win by Air Force over a much fancied Police. A two week break starts now as the International sevens team makes a trip overseas. The local rugby returns with renewed vigour on 7 March with Kandy taking on the Havies in Colombo. On the topic of the international sevens tournament in the past two Fijians were selected to play for Sri Lanka at the 2014 Asian Five Nations after the SLRFU accepted documents that stated the duo’s grandparents were born in Sri Lanka. Surprisingly this week the SLRFU did not select the two Fijians for the Sevens meet, citing problems with their documents. One wonders if this will be subject to a probe – only time will tell. Overseas rugby The overseas rugby season is in full swing and the Six Nations Championship as well as the Super Rugby providing some much-anticipated and required quality rugby. A number of key tactical changes have been made and in the Six Nations, Ireland continues to employ the choke tackle with great success. With the need for the hooker now to actually hook the ball we are observing that the opposition teams are willing to time their push and on many occasions have resulted in teams getting poor quality ball or losing it altogether. In the lineouts, certain teams are choosing not to contest in the

air for the ball but looking to drive through and at times even get turnover ball. A number of teams are contesting well in broken play and after making a tackle are quickly back on their feet and contesting and winning good quick ball. Thus in defence it has become of paramount importance to have enough of support players so that the ball can be moved around as opposed to the old school of thought of ‘holding on’ till support arrives. We also now see various tactics employed in moving the ball along the three quarter line with several dummy runners, cut out passes and the actual recipient running a totally unanticipated different line, at most times right through the middle with devastating effect. These runners have inter alia included the blind side winger, the full back and even a member of the third row and the occasional front rower. This without doubt emphasizes the need for fitter and agile forwards who now have to effectively multitask as in the corporate world. Gone are the days when each player had a rather limited and specific role to perform and once he performed that role, his job was considered as complete. The Aussie teams appear to be excelling in this tactic whilst the NZ-based teams are using their bigger and mobile forwards to good effect by employing the rolling maul and the age old pick and drive tactic to gain territory. The SA-based teams appear to be a hybrid of all these with the kick and chase dominating the first round games. It is very fascinating to see these tactics being employed and the counter measures that are being planned and executed. The next few months will be exciting as the Rugby World Cup is around the corner. The referring too has been good with the need to have flowing rugby gaining more emphasis. The two assistant referees have played their part well and the need to refer to the TMO has been minimal. This appears to be a step in the right direction as there has been a growing concern that the stoppages were one too many seeking the TMO views. The dialogue between the players and the referee has been good whilst we see many of the stalwarts always trying to get the better of the referee in pointing out mistakes of the opposition which may have gone unnoticed. Some things don’t change, do they? (The writer can be reached via [email protected].)

Fijians absent from Sri Lankan squad

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