Unfortunately, the rugby weekends are barely rugby weekends any longer. With matches being played midweek as well it makes following the season an entirely uncompromising affair with regard to time commitment.
St. Peter’s have already disposed of the defending league champions Dharmaraja by a 41-15 scoreline showing that they have excellent try scoring ability. If they can combine that with some determined defence, they maybe able to go all the way.
On Friday Royal take on DS in a match that should be one sided. The Royalists, despite their change of coaches have remained largely a ten man side. And while they should outmuscle Viraj Prashantha’s newly promoted DSSC the scoreline may not reflect the dominance. Royal need to use this match to show Trinity that they have more than one weapon in their armoury, because the Trinity pack look well equipped to handle Royal’s onslaught.
Isipatana take on St. Joseph’s in a match that may turn out to be closer than Pathana imagine. The Joes have not been able to play to their potential all season and have left dangerous backs like captain Wishmitha out in the cold. They need to be able to have some patience to try and unpick the lock of an Isipatana team that is high on confidence, but may spill over into over confidence. Isipatana, after their big win over Trinity have showed their hand as front runners for the league. Nevertheless, they need to keep improving before they meet the likes of Kingswood and Peters who play a similar brand of rugby to them. Both teams suffer from a serious lack of good placed kicking, and have not been able to construct cohesive attacking rugby. Whoever is able to play the counter attack better, will win. And for now, that seems to be Isipatana who have a massive edge in the third row as well.
Stupidly, on the day that Sri Lanka take on Hong Kong and all schoolboys should be watching, we have other rugby matches. STC make the short trip to Science College to try and salvage a troubled few weeks, that have seen their vice captain and now two junior coaches sacked from the set up. Science College will warm up like a shark that has sense some blood in the water. The Thomians, given their personnel issues, will need to keep it tight and prevent the dangerous runners that Science seems to breed. Hammer upfront, and do nothing else, needs to be their mantra, until they can sort out their three quarters’ attack and defence in a competition environment. Science College will sense an upset, except that a win for them won’t be an upset. It will be expected.
Kingswood should hold sway in Kandy over their hometown rivals St. Anthony’s. The several time league champions have kept a low profile for several seasons, but have shown sustainable improvement. SACK also have shown that the mediocrity that has blossomed among several ‘leading’ schools makes their lot much easier to handle this year. Not having seen either team this year, it will be difficult to call, but on form Kingswood look like they may pip this one if there are not ugly incidents as have been in the past.
Trinity have to rebound from a gut wrenching defeat that has been taken badly by the administration more than the boys themselves. And therein lies the problem for the Trinitians. It would appear to an outsider that the old boys want this title more than the present boys. They were beaten by a team who wanted it more, and Wesley could be another one of those teams, except that Pallekelle is a difficult place to win at for visiting teams. Wesley has always been a hard running team, and if Trinity are as error strewn as they were, the excellent natural athletes in the Wesley backline may hurt them. But if Trinity conjure up some patience and keep faith with their excellent, although leaderless pack, it will pay dividends. Wesley need to exploit the relative lack of pace in the Trinity back line and turn them around. Perera and Ratwatte and good going forward, but probably not so good turning around. Acceleration is where Wesley hold the key, and if they can exploit, through some judicious grubbers and chips, things could get interesting.
