Plate grabbed by the sturdiest hand

Dialog Schools Rugby League 2025 Week 9 

Tactical Analysis – Plate Segment

The three Plate Segment encounters were also contested with utmost conviction by all six Schools to conclude the League on a high note; however, some focused tactics and refined discipline could have altered the outcome of all of the games. Although the overall skills exhibited in the Plate Segment by all teams were at a high level, most teams seemed to lack composure, purpose and customised tactics laid out for each of their opponents. Since DSS was a step ahead in these aspects, they managed to turn the tides to elevate themselves by just a notch, to become the deserving winners of the Plate Segment.

St. Joseph’s hosting Ananda - 9 Aug:

It was a giant Pendulum swinging at full speed at the CR & FC, that could have powered its floodlights had this been played at night, as both sides preyed on each other’s sins from the first long whistle to the last. Not much innovative rugby was displayed except for some fine goal line defending skills displayed by Ananda. Finally, it just came down to who committed the most offenses, and who was able to handle the subsequent onslaughts better. How these Tries were actually scored didn’t matter because they were scored anyway, as no team was able to defend without conceding multiple penalties, which mostly propels them to 100% successful attacks.

There’s not much of a difference when it comes to the switch in Ball possession in the prior half, and both teams defended equally well but illegally, almost every single time, ensuring that the other team scored. For instance, Joes scored their first Try off 5 consecutive penalties offered by Ananda.

• Both teams score one Try each aided by multiple penalties
• Joes voluntarily dropped the ball twice while attacking with their Maul
•  Ananda conceded two ‘holding on’ penalties that self-destructed their offensives while attacking deep inside Joes’ territory
• Joes capitalise on a knock forward by Ananda inside their 5, to score another Try  
• Ananda made a huge mistake by not going for maximum points instead of 3, off a penalty opportunity immediately following half time, as they were dominating the Mauls at this time. What made them settle for 3 points here when they were trailing, only heaven knows?
• Joes scored off an opportunity owing to a poor ball collection by Ananda straight after a restart kick, and then a subsequent chase and tackle inside their in-goal area, which offered the hosts a 5m scrum
• In the final minutes, while Ananda was attacking persistently inside Joes’ front Porch with 2 penalty advantages, Ananda’s unwarranted dangerous foul play persuaded the Referee to reverse the penalty, and award it to Joes. This may have been Ananda’s final chance to equalise.

 Ananda attacked and scored successfully with Mauls, while Joes utilised their highly penetrative Pick and Drives, while finishing off some of the others with one-man pick and gos.

Joes found it hard to defend Ananda Mauls, although they diffused a few of them. Ananda defended Joes’ pick ‘n drives quite well, and held up 3 groundings, yet they fell short due to their aforementioned blemishes. Joes continued their 19 offenses count for the third straight week, prompting Paul Hardcastle to issue a re-release of his 1985 hit Single, specifically rewritten for Joes, and also to commemorate the Single’s 40th anniversary, but this time without any chance of winning the prestigious Ivor Novello Award.

 Referee Tharindu Perera who officiated this match has had an impressive season, and seems to be a promising talent that can strengthen the Sri Lanka Society of Rugby Football Referees (SLSRFR). His stern decision to sanction a penalty against Joes for foul-mouthing was appealing.

 Result:  Messy Ananda misses out 29-36

D.S Senanayake hosting Kingswood – 10 Aug:

The Donz seized the Plate at a sizzling showdown, by patiently sticking to a well-planned and meticulously executed game of disciplined rugby, that was yet chased down by the Randles Hill Boys to the very end. Although DS led from the start, and eventually extended the lead to a comfortable margin, Kingswood came storming back as expected in the last quarter, to haunt and torment the home team. However, it wasn’t a huge surprise that Kingswood’s usual shortcomings denied them the upset win, owing to obvious reasons that are quite plain and simple to depict via stats. 

Although nothing more is required to recite the detailed story, here it is anyway.

• Kingswood’s poor defence formation created an overlap, that enabled DS to score their first converted Try
• Kingswood conceded a ‘not releasing’ penalty in their half, with which DS scored a Rolling Maul Try
• DS scored 4 other Tries off back-to-back penalties conceded by Kingswood
• Out of the 7 unforced knock forwards by the visitors, unfortunately some of them were spilled when they commenced counter-attacking, and while the opposition defence was caught off-guard, missing some splendid chances to score

 Kingswood had no response whatsoever to the Maul offensives by DS, except to concede 3 Maul collapsing penalties to make things even harder for themselves. DS was quick to capitalise on this weakness and scored 3 Rolling Maul Tries, while Kingswood used their bread-and-butter skill of Pick and Drive to also score 3 Tries.

 The marvel of the resurrected Kingswood Rugby is that despite all these heavy shortcomings, they still came back strong with a dominating force to overwhelm the hosts, limiting them to a miserly 5 points in the closing half. Haven’t seen many teams do that, but just imagine if they could shed at least one of their major crippling factors, how that could transform the whole outcome of their rugby?

 As the final whistle blew, and the visitors found themselves short by only a whisker, it made the victory seem even more sweeter for the young Donz, who went from rolling the Maul to Rock ‘n Roll mode, surrounded by their animated well-wishers. Before long, they remembered their opponents who had drifted to a corner of the playing field filled with deeply dejected emotions, that persuaded them to halt their celebrations momentarily, gathered up, left the jubilant crowd behind to walk up to the Kingswoodians, to hold and caress them in comfort, expressing and living their rugby value of Solidarity.

Result: Kingswood’s catchup rugby slips from their grip 31-34

 Sri Sumangala hosting Zahira – 10 Aug:

The two schools unanimously decided to step on the Pedal on the final week of the League, to dish out some tantalising fast-paced rugby, coupled with lightning quick offloads, to stun the unsuspecting spectators who had rallied around the Bogambara playing Field on a fine Sunday evening. The way these two teams played the game on this day, should get them quite a distance in the Elite 7s Tournament, to be kicked off later this year. Zahira College in particular, could go all the way to clinch the 7s Title, if they could curtail their unforced errors, and avoid yellow card offenses.

 Nevertheless, the high-tempo action that could have prevented the Patrons from blinking their eyes until they were in tears, was frequently interrupted by continuous infringements that tremendously brought the quality of the game down, to be far from being elite.

• Zahira helped themselves with the hosts’ tremendous generosity towards the visitors, by utilizing a series of penalties offered all the way from behind Zahira’s 40, to score a Try
• Zahira collected a high ball from just outside their 40, and ran the ball with high-intensity, coupled with timely offloads, to score a converted Try. The passes were timed so perfectly, just milliseconds before the defenders could get a hold of the ball carriers, as if the Zahirians had eyes all around their crowns. Hats off to the Backs Coach of Zahira!
• Summa exquisitely collected the ball from their own restart kick just inside Zahira’s 40, for their Backs to work out a spectacular Try that was almost undefendable
• The reason for the scores being locked at half time, although Summa committed considerably more offenses than Zahira is because, only half of Summa’s offenses were committed inside their half, while all of Zahira’s 6 offenses were committed within their grid.

Zahira’s high offenses count accumulated exponentially in the dying minutes of the game, when Sri Sumangala attacked continuously and vehemently in trying to score the winning Try; but Zahira’s persistence kept them at bay, thus ultimately Summa had no choice but to take 3 points with the last penalty chance in order to tie the game.

 Result: Fast-paced headless roadrunner contest deadlocks at 34-all

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

Pix courtesy of thepapare.com