While Trinity remained unbeaten showcasing a near-impeccable defence effort, Zahira grabbed the much-deserved runners-up title, not only to the jubilation of their fraternity, but also to the delight of all true rugby lovers of the Country. Special accolades should go out to their Head Coach Radhika Hettiarachchi who singlehandedly changed the face of Zahira Rugby last season. However, they were unsuccessful then, because of the mindless rugby that was played like headless Chickens. This season, their rugby was more structured, organized and a well-defined method to their madness prevailed, thanks to the addition of former Isipathana Coach Dhanushka Bothejo, and a few others.
The huge contrast in the two teams was evident right from the kick-off, although at the surface, both seemed to be playing similar style of attacking rugby. The difference was in the attitude and determination that was gushing out of the Royalists, due to the obvious reason of not being able to secure a single win in the Cup Segment so far, thus the urgency was at peak as this was their last chance.
This contrast propelled the Tuskers to dominate the game, and keep on attacking constantly, in spite of infringing heavily in the opening half. In addition and as forecasted, they kicked only to gain access to the Double Blues’ half, and then held a tight grip on the ball, either until they scored or infringed.
The Double Blues enjoyed another run of immaculate game discipline and stats, that kept the ferocious Tuskers at bay, although they couldn’t score as much, using the ball possession opportunities presented to them by the visitors.
Only 3 out of the 7 Royal penalties were conceded inside their own grid
Most of those penalties were conceded in sequence, starting from the Wesley’s grid, inviting the hosts all the way up to the private Royal quadrangle. Incidentally, the hosts scored both their Tries in this session, purely by undeniable penalty invitations with absolutely no option offered to RSVP.
While Royal maximised ball possession and relieved pressure by choosing to kick only at vantage points that got them into the opposition’s grid, Wesley ended up constantly kicking to exit their Killzone, that inadvertently got them into pressure situations continuously
Royal scored their first Try off a clearance kick executed without much forethought by Wesley, that landed in no man’s land, which was used to infiltrate a lightly defended part of the field
This is not the first time it happened in the history of schools’ rugby and it won’t be the last, but Royal scored a converted Try off the only knock-on committed by Wesley in this session, that occurred rather close to their 22 when catching a highball
The Tuskers mustered a much-refined game when they returned, but it is suspected that Wesley possibly munched into poisonous Melons during the break, as they let down their guards and displayed a horrid half of game discipline consisting of 3 yellow cards, that gave the charged-up Royalists exactly what they were yearning for, all along. However, they weren’t able to encash most of those opportunities due to imprecise ball handling, as the ‘delta loss in possession’ depicts.
However, the visitors managed to score only 2 Tries off the pelting penalties courtesy of the hosts, but they also scored a surprise Try off a lineout turnover inside Wesley’s 22
Wesley scored their only Try through a knock-on inside Royal’s 22, followed by an array of penalties
Shan ‘charismatic’ Althaf rallied and unified his pride of Lions with utmost confidence and thundered the last charge to reach the twilight goal, which brought abundant cheers of bliss that rolled throughout the venue. Instead of leading from the front, Shan led from behind, letting his pride shine with its skilled heroics, as he stepped onto the forefront only when necessary, to reliably and consistently provide the breaks that were required, with his high-energy burst plays throughout the season.
Trinity redefined defence in this encounter, where it was executed to near perfection in the opening half, but fell somewhat in the latter, where they defended with some degree of flaw, yet good enough to render the Peterites scoreless, although the final scorecard erroneously showed points for SPC, courtesy of Referee Ishanka Abeykoon. However, Trinity slumbered during their attacks with a busload of errors, that prevented them from reaching at least the mid-thirties, if not forties.
Although it was crystal clear that the memorandum sent to the starting 15 was to avoid unnecessary penalties, it was so hard to resist something that has become second nature, as the Peterites invited the visitors to help themselves with a head start by showering them with unwarranted penalties to trail by 7.
However, the Brigade commenced their attack with a plan, by patiently securing possession up until they approached the opposition 50, then only to kick precious possession away.
Subsequently, once they managed to cross over to the other side with ball in hand a while later, Trinity commenced pinning them down, and pushing them back with their repetitive darts of quick rush defences targeting the SPC Backs, hence they either had to revert to their Forwards, or kick the ball to gain territory
In addition, these rush defences caused a few but critical handling errors that halted some of SPC’s attacking efforts. Moreover, it didn’t seem like the hosts had a game plan to counter Trinity’s rush defences, or to surpass that much-expected hurdle.
To further add misery to SPC’s advancement, the ball was often quite slow to come out of the Rucks; Way too slow for the agility of Trinity, as their defence had sufficient time to sip a cup of tea, before getting back to their respective defensive positions, almost every time. Chipmunks could have retrieved stored food from their deep and complex 3D burrows much faster.
Apart from the other collective rugby blunders orchestrated perfectly to ruin every chance, Trinity lost two more attacking chances by knocking on twice inside Peter’s 40, while a forced knock-on right on the Tryline, disrupted a certain scoring opportunity
SPC started out the second half with another, totally avoidable ‘tackling in mid-air’ offense, coupled with a yellow card, thereby gifting three more points
A puzzling question popped up when the Peterites readily gave up a rare penalty opportunity inside the opposition’s grid, by taking the kick and missing it. Was this decision made out of the pure respect they had for Trinity’s lineout and Maul defences, or simply because they couldn’t count on their Forwards?
Trinity scored their last Try off another totally childish, and ‘my precious’ style ‘holding on’ penalty conceded inside SPC’s 22
St. Peter’s lost a certain scoring chance very close to the tryline by knocking on, out of manic desperation
The hosts knocked on again, but this time while grounding inside Trinity’s fortress, but Referee Ishanka proceeded to award the Try, ignoring a confident input by the Touch Judge, instead of opting to check the replay
Trinity infringed heavily while being attacked inside their redzone, but managed to defend every single intruding attempt by the desperate Peterites
Although Trinity won this game convincingly by demonstrating excellent defending skills, the array of elementary errors committed while attacking, made them look quite ordinary. An ordinary Trinity attack that makes so many mistakes, may offer an extraordinary Royal outfit, a lot to work with in a fortnight.
The ultimate top-notch entertainment that kept everyone guessing until the last second of the game was kicked off at Havelock Park with the Green Machine continuing their form in steadfast ball handling, that allowed them to take advantage of almost every opportunity presented to score points. It was also inevitable that at some point in the game, the ‘Pathana’ factor would affect the high-riding Zahirians psychologically, which occurred somewhere in the latter half, ignited by a minute error, that flipped the game on its head. It was a perfect example of the Butterfly effect, but confined within the game. Before getting into the details, let’s have a look at the full game stats.
Zahira committed a tad extra handling errors and offenses than they should have in this tight game, that bumped up the lost possession count to 30% more than Pathana’s.
Almost all the Tries scored in this game were due to penalties conceded by the other side, that made it quite easy for the attacking team to score.
Pathana scored a Try thru a 22m scrum that was awarded following a Forced KO
Zahira commenced attacking soon after the restart kick following Lemons, to score a Try without the assistance of penalties, or committing any themselves
When Zahira was leading 12-nil in the opening half, they opted to work a penalty that was awarded right in front of the giant sticks, but the subsequent grounding was held up. This may now come under scrutiny as Zahira lost the game, but this was a wise decision due to many reasons, regardless of the outcome. First and foremost, a champion team always goes for maximum points, relying solely on its skillsets, self-confidence and determination, whereas lack in confidence results in cowardly actions that consider only the present situation, instead of the endgame. Secondly, it is given that the Green Machine would come back strong later in the game, and they don’t care much for penalty points. Therefore, sufficient points had to be accumulated whenever the opportunity existed.
After the preceding held up situation, Zahira attacked following the goal line drop out by collecting the ball and weaving through the Pathana defence quite beautifully and effortlessly to create an overlap. However, the last pass to the farthest player on the blind side, who could have scored without any resistance, dropped the ball cold close to Pathana’s 5m line. Zahira’s defeat could be certainly attributed to this incident alone without any reservations. Incumbent Referee Raveen Alexander appeared to miss even ‘Elephants’ that are right in front of him, let alone groundings on thighs.
The error that swung the tides of the game occurred as Zahira was leading 19-7, when a trivial passing error created a slight manic state, which led to the ball being stolen by Pathana. This turnover instantly caused panic in the Zahira camp where pandemonium set in, commencing with two successive penalty advantages, followed by further back-to-back penalties until Pathana scored. Once the green dopamine kicked in, Pathana was in a different mindset and level of aggression, that caused further panic and turmoil that lead to a series of mistakes through which the hosts scored sufficient points to win the game.