Oh Rugby, thy Kingdom come to Kandy

Dialog Schools Rugby League 2025 Week 8 Tactical Analysis of Cup Segment

It’s official now that Kandy becomes the new reigning Kingdom of Schools Rugby in Sri Lanka, for the first time since 2013, when Dharmaraja College took the Crown to the Hills. Considering that it was a very young team that was groomed with exceptional rugby skills in attack and defence, way much more than what their natural physical capacity is intended for, Colombo should be warned that the Monarchy is not shifting down to Sea level any time soon, at least not as long as Fazil Marija is Head Coach.

 Trinity vs Wesley 

Trinity hosting Wesley – 2 Aug:

It was the perfect grapple between two shiny new top tier teams, who commenced the game and progressed with set plans, purpose, control and discipline, hence kudos to both coaching crews for elevating Schools Rugby to these standards. The defending of both sides was another story, in which Wesley proved that theirs isn’t any inferior to the Lions’, which left the scoreboard seem broken for almost the first 20 minutes. The Double Blues, who conceded over 20 penalties per game during the beginning of the season (and last season), now ramped down their sins to a moderate 8, in order to be able to make an even contest out of this game, which was truly remarkable as well. In the end, it came down as to who kept it together the most, and who made the biggest blunders in this significant encounter.

 Trinity did commence the game with the maiden blunder by taking the Ball into their in-goal area and then grounding it, which awarded a 5m scrum to Wesley; but when most assumed that it would result in a certain Try, the Lions defended remarkably well to chase the Trespassers off their Turf in no time. In addition, Trinity also defended the mammoth Wesley Maul from a 7m lineout, by turning it over during some breathtaking moments and fashion, which was an immense accomplishment indeed, although very much anticipated by this Columnist. Thereafter, Trinity faltered by deliberately knocking the Ball forward while Wesley was attacking close to their 10m, thereby offering them a penalty opportunity, with which the visitors scored 7 points.

 Then Trinity attacked desperately to score, but Wesley wouldn’t give in, portraying almost the same class in defence as their hosts, until an offside offence put them on their backfoot with which the hosts scored an unconverted Try to trail 5-7 at Lemons. Trinity missed the opportunity to lead 10-7 at the break, by missing an easy Conversion, and a penalty kick in the prior half.

 Although Trinity scored points off Wesley penalties in the decisive half, the biggest game changing blooper occurred when a Wesleyite decided to take the Ball into the in-goal area and ground it, instead of trying to adventurously scream for his life to a safe area before clearing it. The proceeding 5m Trinity scrum was executed perfectly as per the drills conducted at practice sessions, through a #8 break to score an indefensible Try. To top off the icing on the Cake, a Drop Goal from 40m took Trinity to 23 points, while the visitors were still left with what they had gathered prior to the break.

 With almost 12 minutes to full time, with a lead of 16, and been penalised only 6 times thus far, the hosts took it easy, mustering 8 offenses inside 12 minutes to allow Wesley to score Tries in succession to get damn too close to them by the final long Whistle.

 Result: Stronger Trinity defence prevailed over Wesley 23-21

S. Thomas' vs Royal 

S. Thomas’ hosting Royal – 2 Aug:

The Royal Tuskers finally returned to their true form of rugby, by demonstrating their best performance this season so far, to overpower an unconvincing Thomian outfit to retain the Michael Gunaratne Trophy for another year. Their total body language and approach towards this game took a tremendous shift from their previous games, which was a sight for sore eyes indeed. Royal Rugby was back in business with its usual aggressive but purposeful onslaughts, and more importantly their defying defence efforts that had made them one of the superpowers of Schools Rugby of the modern age. 

 Coincidentally, their progress thus far clearly validates the forecast in the pre-season Teaser Article that denoted, “the general expectation for Royal College to field a stronger side in the major competitions is questionable, as they are expected to maintain focus on regaining the Bradby Shield this year”, which was incidentally poorly received by some ardent Royalists. Since, the scoreline does not indicate the difference in performances of both teams, it makes sense to dive deeper and explore.

 Since Royal played their trademark Tuskers game right from the kick-off, it was quite easy for them to score their first Try without the assistance of errors from the opposition; just pure attacking brilliance to create an overlap on the far left. Thereafter, all of their scoring came from Thomian offenses, while they ensured that they strictly followed two principals in this game.

 1.Valued Ball possession and kicked only when absolutely necessary – this was a key tactical decision made by the Royal Camp, and was one of the main reasons for their victory

2.No lone Rangers – Another tactic that was strictly followed was that no one proceeds in any direction with the Ball without adequate support following behind

 In spite of point 2 above, the Thomians were fast and skilled enough to roll away in a flash, and start stealing at the tackles to force three ‘holding on’ penalties to disrupt 3 of Royal’s fierce onslaughts inside Thora territory.

The home team conceded too many offenses in the opening half that prevented them from attacking, but instead placed the opposition’s Fingers on the Trigger. The visitors could have scored close to 30 points in this half due to this, but either substandard passes or flimsy receives, handed possession over to the hosts amidst severe onslaughts deep behind enemy lines. The Thomians possibly never realised that the missed straightforward Conversion in this half would come back to throttle them later.

The stats are comparable between the two teams in the second half, but the massive difference in points conceded was owing to a blemish by the visitors. A poor clearance kick by Royal following the half time restart kick, granted STC a lineout just outside RC’s 22, which the home team used to score a converted Try, as Mayanka Dias energetically waltzed his way solo, to score a spectacular Try.

 In the 51st minute of the game, the Thomians missed a guaranteed Try when the Winger decided to run the Ball inside, instead of the blindside that was completely unprotected, quite close to the visitors’ 5m. A possible forethought could have been the confidence in breaking through the centre defence with the ever so reliable help of the Thora support play, in order to secure the extra points, which backfired when the Ball was eventually knocked forward. This would have been a smart move when playing against sides with average defences, but certainly not against a team who can defend like the Royal Tuskers.

 Other Tries were scored by both sides through penalties awarded for offenses. A crucial one being, when Royal scored the winning Try in the last minute of the game, off an inferior clearance kick followed by a mind-blowing number of back-to-back offenses by the Hosts, to profoundly refuse custody of the Michael Gunaratne Trophy.

 Result: Thomians throttle themselves 29-30

St. Peter's vs Isipathana 

St. Peter’s hosting Isipathana – 2 Aug:

After being constantly raided, and their respective lines of prestige being disrespected by some of the oppositions, both coaching units have done commendable work in beefing up their defences in this game to raise a few Eyebrows, while recalling how both set benchmark standards in defence, during the past years. 

 Rugby is not only about running with the Ball and scoring Tries; it’s also about the finer details and techniques executed to precision, leading up to that moment of celebration, on all aspects of the game, such as, how each onslaught is disrupted, then how counter attacks are initiated based on where the play occurs in the Field. We are still talking about Under-19 Schoolboys rugby, but the rugby instincts and skills that were portrayed in this encounter are simply owing to the coaching brilliance of both coaching crews. In addition to the severe defence achieved by superior defence formations, combined with accurately marked, yet unwavering tackling, both sides were turning over possession left, right and centre by means of stealing, Scrum, Ruck, Lineout and Maul turnovers, mostly during decisive scoring instances, and while defending under severe pressure. A sum of 8 forced knock forwards should draw an outline of how fierce the tackling was in this game. 

 Finally, it came down to who’s defence was consistently stronger that kept intruders away, which determined the winners of this game. So, let’s break this game into two halves to examine it closely.

Although Pathana offended slightly more, extending additional invitations for the hosts to attack and score, they managed to defend all of their mistakes. The solitary Try that was scored by SPC in this half was by creating the opportunity to attack and score. However, it must be noted that some of Isipathana’s scoring chances were foiled by some of these 5 offenses, in addition to the solid defence and forced spills owing to hard tackles. On the contrary, most of Peter’s forced and unforced handling errors prevented them from completing their attacking moves, limiting them to just one Try.

Although SPC conceded a few more penalties than the visitors in the latter half, they were also very much capable of defending their flaws, hence Pathana had to improvise and score their only Try off a cross-kick that was caught and grounded inside the hosts’ in-goal area. A few memorable, nerve-tingling highlights of the second half by both teams follow.

 

• Pathana executing the classic hooking and turning over a 5m Scrum to escape from an imminent and dangerous SPC onslaught
• Pathana turning over a SPC lineout quite close to their own 5m to disrupt a potential Try
• Immediately following the above incident, a green Ball Carrier emerging out from the Tryline was held up to form a Maul, which was cleverly turned over by the Pete’s at Pathana’s 5m, and was eventually used to score their second and final Try of the game

 Result:  Pete’s fend better than Pathana 14-7

(The Analyst can be reached at: [email protected])

Pix courtesy: thepapare.com