Sports

Rigged derby robs Trinity’s glory

As the final week dawned on us to end our merry journey of three months, exciting encounters consisting of twists, turns and last-act shocks, dazzled the last weekend of rugby, leading to the perfect climax that this season deserved. All these unfolding despite the League Champions being already known, was a real surprise treat for all the rugby lovers, who weren’t expecting their last weekend to be so extravagant. Thanks to all the untiring coaching teams, and ALL the School Boys, who have worked tirelessly, pouring and sacrificing their sweat, blood, bones, muscles, studies and their wellbeing, towards the rich traditions of Sri Lanka Schools Rugby.

This encounter turned out to be one of the perfect climaxes to an epic season of schools’ rugby, with the Thomians stepping up some of their skills along with their game, in order to level up to the mighty Wesleyites, and to indulge the spectators with a nerve-wrecking game of high-octane rugby. The Thomians returned to their true form of Anuranga’s Trademark rugby, that had gone AWOL since their game against Isipathana. The ability of both teams to score at will against their opponents’ mediocre defences, meant that the team that struck synchronously with the Clock, shall also stick to the Runners-up title. In essence, the Thomians had just one minute to save their world, but their defence could not hold back an extremely determined and persistent final onslaught unleashed by the Double Blue Thunder.

The game kicked off with both sides playing their hearts out, scoring alternately, some assisted by penalties and the others by persistent attacking. Some Tries were not scored even after getting so close to the opponents’ Goal Lines due to knock forwards.

The reason for STC’s low scoring despite Wesley’s high penalty count is because, most of them were awarded as back-to-back advantages when the visitors were attacking inside the hosts’ front yard. For a clearer picture, follow a list of key highlights of the opening half.

An unforced knock forward by Wesley early on, prevented a Try inside STC’s 5
STC attacked and scored a converted Try following an ‘off feet’ penalty conceded inside Wesley’s half
A poorly executed full-out clearance kick close to STC’s 22 costed them a Try
The visitors were forcibly ushered beyond the hosts’ exclusive perimeter, to score off 3 consecutive penalties
STC’s tactic in kicking Ball possession away into the opposition’s half, and then being lethargic to chase them down, often immersed them in simmering soup, rather than in trying situations

The other Tries were scored off fine attacking efforts that neither team could defend.

By perusing the above stats, it is crystal clear that the Thomian defence is quite fragile indeed. Further synopsis of the latter half is given below.

Wesley scored off multiple Thora Penalties, aided by some poor goal line defence
STC scored a Try off a ‘not rolling away’ offense committed inside the hosts’ half
Further substandard defence formation costs STC a Try
Wesley easily scored another converted Try off a poorly executed full-out clearance kick by STC
STC scored one more Try following a penalty by Wesley

In summary, it is a world wonder as to how such poor execution of clearance kicks combined with inferior defence formations, and a truckload of missed tackles, got the Thomians so close to winning the Runners-up Title?

It must be stated that the Double Blues brawled bravely resembling 23 courageous Spartans for a hard-fought win, and Abdul Haadhi is truly a Braveheart of his generation, and the hero of this Season, professing and proving that courage seldom manifests from one’s physical structure alone.

Result: Wesley struck with the Clock 43-38

Royal hosting Isipathana – 9 Aug:

Royal vs. Isipathana

A game that proceeded disguised as a one-sided business during most part of the game, suddenly capsized to the shocking delight of the home crowd. Royal College was trailing by some measurement in lightyears throughout the game, but somehow found a Wormhole or maybe even two, to not only shrink the mammoth distance, but also to slingshot beyond Pathana’s score in warp drive to seize the day. How this actually transpired in a rugby sense is the motive of this analysis.

The reason behind the storyline of the former half is quite simple but twofold. Primarily, Isipathana played a carefully planned and methodically executed possession game, resisting the tempting urge to kick the Ball away, after many many moons; in fact, maybe since last season. In addition, they were consciously focussed in curtailing their offenses that didn’t offer the hosts many chances to attack.

The second reason is that Royal intentionally played a passive game, solely on first Gear throughout the opening half, making close observers curious as to what their game plan was. The next part is purely speculative, but the analysis still proceeds to go out on a Limb, nevertheless. Royal may have used this game as a practice match before the Bradby, to find out if they can manage a strong second half comeback game, upon mentally destabilising their opponents after getting their Brains to think that they have already won, and thereby subconsciously convincing them to play a relaxed game, that could pave way for many mistakes to be made. This, in conjunction with the exact scenario that Trinity was in, in the last quarter of their match against Wesley, could have been the key driving factor for this experimental bold move. If you had noticed Dushanth Lewke at the half time whistle when Pathana led 24-3, he was seen to be cool as a Cucumber, and calm as before a Storm.

Out of the 5 penalties, Isipathana conceded only 2 in own half, and their defence was quite hard to penetrate at the time, which convinced Royal to pick up 3 points off one of those
On the contrary, 6 out of the 7 Royal penalties were conceded inside their grid, which the visitors merrily used to score successive Tries off.
Isipathana scored 2 Tries assisted by Royal’s consecutive offenses inside their half
The visitors scored 2 more Tries owing to pathetically executed goal line drop outs, which strongly resembled the coaching and skills of the national rugby team.

The above stats summarise the complete tale of the second half in which 9 penalties out of the 11 were conceded inside Isipathana’s half, which proves Royal College strategists’ theory to be 100% accurate.

Royal scored 4 Tries off the 9 penalties offered inside the Pathana red zone as the visitors couldn’t defend without conceding penalties when attacked, in complete contrast to the former half
A clearance kick by Pathana that didn’t find a safe distance along the touchlines, combined with their inability to turnover at the subsequent lineout just outside their 22, allowed Royal to score off their Maul.

Result: Classic tale of the Turtle and the Hair 34-31

Trinity hosting St. Peter’s – 10 Aug:

Trinity vs. St. Peter's

Regardless of the fact that our forecast for this fixture was accurate, and thereby becoming a reality, the officiating of this game looked quite suspicious from the outset, and it only got worse as the game progressed, finally to reach a conclusive opinion that this match was rigged.

Upon carrying out tactical analysis of rugby games during the past few years, the abilities, shortcomings and the performance of Referees were also duly observed, although they weren’t part of the writeups. Due to this, it is now possible to predict what penalty signal is coming right after the whistle is blown, based on the respective body positioning of each Referee, while they blow the whistle with the straight arm penalty signal on display. It is also reasonably possible to deduce if errors were made by accident or on purpose, based on the historical patterns of the respective Officials, in relation to their nature, competence and consistency.

This game was officiated by the experienced Kelum Sandaruwan, who had a reasonably good season, committing only a few errors per game, well within the allowable error threshold. He also officiated some games exceptionally well this season, possibly making it the best year of his officiating career. However, his intent and actions were questionable since the game commenced, as he got the most basic calls wrong, and acted as if he didn’t see some of the critical errors made by the Peterites, completely turning a blind eye towards them, while cross checking some of the others with the Touch Judges even though he was in prefect positions to adjudge them. Tries scored by Trinity was something that he mostly ensured to be checked with his assistants. The voluntary blind eye shown in this game hugely benefited St. Peter’s, while making it impossible for Trinity to win it fairly, and are provided below for the readers’ personal analysis, and to draw their own conclusions. The time provided below are the game clock time as per the coverage by Papare.

4:18 – The tackled SPC ball carrier is poached by a Trinity defender, after the tackler rolls away and before the SPC support player forms the Ruck, but the SPC ball carrier who’s on the ground does not release the ball, hence it should have been blown as a ‘holding on’ offense by St. Peter’s. SPC eventually scored 5 points off this move.
15:02 – Trinity ball carrier attempts to pass the ball which is disrupted by a SPC defender, as the ball in flight strikes the latter’s hand and alters course towards SPC’s goal line, which is then knocked forward by another incoming Peterite, when he attempts to catch it. The subsequent Scrum should have been in favour of Trinity, but it was awarded to SPC.
22:18 – Trinity attempts a touch finder off a penalty awarded to them, but it is undercooked and gets knocked forward inside the in-goal area when a SPC player tries to catch it. The Referee was seen running towards the scene just outside SPC’s 22, with clear line of sight to see what unfolds, yet he signals for a ‘goal line drop out’, giving the ball back to SPC. Fortunately for Trinity, he was forced to change his call by the persistent Touch Judge, who was clearly not his accomplice in crime.
26:45 – The ball is kicked towards SPC’s goal line by Trinity, which bounces into the in-goal area, but then gets kicked out of play by a SPC defender beyond the dead-ball line, as he tries to gather it. Yet again Kelum signals for a ‘goal line drop out’ although he was quite close to the incident. The ball was subsequently given back to SPC, whereas it should have been a 5m scrum for Trinity, that deprived them of a high scoring chance from SPC’s 5m. Hypothetically assuming that the Ball didn’t touch the SPC defender before rolling out, then the next play should have been a scrum to SPC from where the ball was initially kicked by Trinity, which didn’t take place either, making the conspiracy theory seem real.
62:36 – SPC sets up a Maul from just outside Trinity’s 40 and drives towards the opposition’s goal line, and the Maul stops moving for the first time around 38m, and the Referee promptly announces it. The Referee then prompts SPC to use the Ball a few times, as the Maul passes the 35m mark, but it proceeds further. The Maul completely halts again just outside Trinity’s 22 and then Kelum prompts the Peterites to use it again, but the Maul still moves forward momentarily afterwards, at which point a genuine officiator would have stopped the game and awarded the ball to the defending team, as the attacking team failed to follow his instructions not once, but twice. The Maul proceeds further until it turns into a Ruck inside Trinity’s 22, and then he eventually awards a penalty against Trinity for being offside. SPC scored the winning 3 points off subsequent attacks.

Aided by the above detailed descriptions, the readers are encouraged to watch the recording and come to their own conclusions, regardless of which fraternity they belong to. A tactical analysis of this game is utterly useless when there has been no fair play in this encounter, and it is quite evident that it was dishonestly manipulated by Kelum Sandaruwan. Although this column does not stand for crowd violence or unruly behaviour under any circumstance, the human tolerance level has a defined boundary, especially when dignity and rights are violated, as there are no ways to counter it or change the outcome. Since referees are protected on and off the Field of play, and then promptly covered and protected from media outage thereafter as well, are they always going to have the last laugh, by dragging Rugby in Sri Lanka down to the Sewers they crawled out of?

Result: Biased officiating calls for the match to be nullified

Source : DailyFT