The weekend’s action was highlighted by the Bradby. It is after all the most looked forward to game in the schools calendar, although the game itself won’t be remembered for its rugby.
The lead was dominated by castigation of appointed referee Dimithra Gunasekera. The opinions which dominated some reputed back pages, were nothing short of libellous. It’s really surprising more journos don’t get done for defamation. In fact, one of the criticisms of referee Gunasekera, was that the fact that he got famously assaulted after the sevens final last year is proof that he cannot referee. How that sort of logic is published, I will never know.
Trinity’s defence held sway on the day, with captain Ratwatte leading with his shoulder. He also put over a crucial drop goal when Royal had finally pulled back within a point early in the second half. After that he orchestrated the game without much end result. Both teams served mediocre fare, that was thoroughly undeserving of the 1,500/- paid for it.
Royal failed to exploit Trinity’s obvious weaknesses, and the better conditioned Trinity team won the physical battle, eventually. Despite their obvious talent and quality, Trinity’s ineptitude in the set pieces make them extremely beatable. And 12 points, if approached clinically, shouldn’t be unassailable. However, Royal will have to play to their strengths and not attempt to prove to the world that they can play Super XV rugby.
St. Peters’ travelled up to Bogambara to play St. Anthony’s in the Rectors’ Trophy. An important game for both schools. The 32 – 17 win in difficult underfoot conditions highlights Peters’ ability to run the ball. Burah. Ranasinghe and Dixon are lethal in their awareness of space. And with some pace to burn on the outside, St. Peters’ are dangerous. After the reliance on Herath and Ranjan in the last couple of years, this team looks more complete, and Roger at no. 8 is holding together a competent eight who have try scoring flanker Nishon Perera as their top performer. For so long, the set piece that let them down, is coming through for SPC, and they could challenge for honours.
SACK have yet to reach their Eagle heights but have been rebuilding and are much more competitive. They will rue a missed opportunity against S. Thomas’ and will be demoted to the Plate competition as a result of that loss. However, they got within a point of the winners after half time at 13-12, but the superior physicality of the Peterites better conditioned team held sway after this, with three quick tries that broke the back of the Eagle’s resistance. SACK can take heart though as they scored only one try less than the eventual winners.
The other unbeaten team on this side of the draw is Kingswood, and they demolished STC by 40 – 08. The beleagured Thomians showed little or no fight, and seemed uninterested in defence. Kingswood and SPC playing out a draw in their first game has meant that the teams haven’t lost, although Isipatana is the only unbeaten team in the league to have won all their games.
After a couple of average years Kingswood have topped their group ahead of SPC as a result of this big win. It is strange that the STC set piece could not dominate more in conditions that would have favoured them. The Thora team are big and strong, and have not dominated the contact in the way that could be expected. Their match up with Royal in the next round should be an interesting one. After a commanding 19 – 3 lead at half time, Kingswood ran away with it on the scoreboard in the second half with their backs outpacing their opponents with ease.
Finally, the unbeaten Patana team staved off a Shezad Hamidon inspired comeback from Wesley in the second half to hang onto their unbeaten tag. It is not usually that we see an Isipatana side that is reliant on their forwards, but this year’s Green Machine have a good pack which is winning games for them. After showing good continuity to score their tries and lead 15 – 3 at half time, Isipatana took their foot off the gas when they added a couple more tries. Sooriyarachchi at scrum half and Guneratne at no.8 continue to score tries, while Kongahawatte continues to miss kicks at goal. Whether this will haunt them later with points for and against being computed remains to be seen, but for the amount of tries that Patana score, it is criminal that they kick away so many extra points.
The favourites made things hard for themselves by relaxing in the second half allowing a superb Wesley fightback. The exciting runners of Wesley who were unable to dominate last weekend against Trinity upped the pace of the game. Isipatana’s conditioning does not allow them to last 80 mins at the same intensity and this may begin to tell on them later on in the season. Their bench strength is not as good as some other team’s and they will have to manage their resources and recovery very carefully.
Despite Hamidon’s hat trick however, it was too little too late for Wesley and they found themselves 3 points adrift at 25 – 22 at the final whistle.
Wesley can count themselves really unfortunate to go down to the plate along with DSSC from their group as they had very narrow defeats in all their games. Two points against Royal, six against Trinity and now three points against Isipatana, showing that 11 points is all it takes to make or break a season.
St. Joseph’s can count themselves lucky to advance at the expense of Wesley as they huffed and puffed to beat DSSC on Friday. Easily the most talented Joes side in a long time, this team have come up short on several occasions having terrible awareness of what to do and when to do it. Their line outs have been shabby, while placed kicking has let them down. Their big forward pack has not been used efficiently and they have tried to open up the game when their strength is clearly in the tight areas.
The 12 – 5 win was all they could muster and proceed to the next round with the top teams. It is a vastly underachieving Joes team, and with the right attitude they can turn things around. However, they look leaderless and are their own worst enemy.
Science College and STC advance while Wesley who are clearly a better side than them are relegated to the Plate. These are the anomalies of the format, which as mentioned earlier, is ridiculous. Why change something that is not broken?
