Dialog Schools Rugby League 2025 - Week 3 Tactical Analysis

League intensifies as SPC conducts Science Experiments 

Not to be confused with the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation, but St. Peter’s College carried out lethal experiments on Science College in a plot to thicken their game, prior to their big weekend of the season. We also saw some tight and intense rugby games being played all through the weekend with most results being so close and so unusual at this stage of the season, that it becomes pivotal to break those encounters down, with some elements of speculative conspiracy theories, to make proper sense of what’s happening behind the scenes, and especially inside the Maestro minds of the Coaches of the top 6 Schools to be.

Royal hosting Joes – 20 June:

Joes put up a gallant performance to disrupt the free flowing Try spree of the Royal Tuskers on a dry Friday evening. Originally scheduled for Saturday the 21^st of June, the game was advanced by a day, as Royal’s Head Coach Dushanth Lewke was summoned for national duties, to join the Sri Lankan team for their crucial encounter against Hong Kong China on Sunday. It was quite fortunate that he was present to guide the Royal Tuskers on the day, as Joes proved to be quite a handful.

Joes started the game off with a blooper right after Royal kicked-off, where a Joes clearance kick that could not be elevated above the playing Heads, rocketed straight into the Head of Joes #6, and then propelled back the other way towards their own goal line, and wabbled onto the in-goal area, where it was patted on its Head by Royal for an unconverted Try. Now the post-mortem of this blunder involving multiple Heads to figure out if the kicking angle was not acute enough, or if the tall #6 was supposed to amble away fast enough, would be one of Head Coach Dulanjana’s headaches to resolve next week.

Though the Saints remained reasonably saintly throughout the game with a decent 8 violations of the law, some of them led to Royal scoring Tries.

• In the prior half, Royal managed to advance into Joes’ territory by capitalising on the ‘high tackle’ infringement by the Saints, and subsequently scored a converted Try by means of ‘pick and drives’. Offenses such as ‘high tackles’ should be coached into the team as part of ‘safety first’ initiatives by all Coaches, and should be avoided at all costs. 

• Royal scored a Try in the second half, off a penalty awarded for ‘collapsing maul’. Although Joes did quite well in defending Royal Mauls, one got through the cracks, hence require further tactical options or/and practice in order to counter and diffuse Mauls, before the crucial forthcoming encounters.

Other slipups of Joes:

• 8 unforced knock-ons exceed the highwater mark of a high-performance team, but two of these occurred at lineouts, resulting in change of Ball possession, whilst losing the lineout.

• Three lineouts were lost due to either poor hooking or knock-ons by Joes. The knock-ons may have resulted due to inaccurate hooking as well; over to the Forwards Coach. 

• A knock-on occurred while charging after the Ball very close to the Royal line of prestige, which deprived Joes of a certain Try 

• During the last minutes of the game, a quick tap taken close to the Royal 22, off a fruity penalty offering, turned sour after Joes knocked it forward

Even though the preceding series of rather unfortunate events seem petty, all such offbeat patters keep adding up to become loud enough for the opposition teams to capitalise on and pile up points. In addition, superior teams like Royal, can create their own opportunities and score points as well, just like the Try that was scored with a beautiful and accurate cross kick in this game. Therefore, minimising blunders is not an option, but a must to remain competitive!

Joes held back Royal 33-14

Zahira hosting Kingswood – 21 June:

The weather Gods were kind enough not to spoil one of the most heated contests of the weekend, yet regrettably both teams failed to play to their best potential in this game, making a ton of handling, disciplinary and decisional errors, thereby turning this into a low scoring game. There was absolutely no excuse for the home team Zahira to deliver anything less than what they were capable of on a Desert dry Turf, but they probably didn’t even hit 70% of their full potential. Kingswood didn’t seem the usual aggressive bunch with the Ball as well, other than when their Forwards carried it, while the Backs seemed much less potent with frequent decision paralysis.

While Zahira’s unforced handling errors were restricted to an average 6, unfortunately three of them were knocked on either very close to, or beyond Kingswood’s line of prestige, which was the sole reason for their defeat in this game. In addition, Zahira’s left Winger was the weakest link in their Backline, messing up a number of chances, either in advancing the gain line, or scoring points. He was mostly never in position to receive passes from the Centre, especially when they were attacking intensely, and when he eventually did, he got himself trapped almost instantly by the defenders. That’s a minimum of 4 undefendable Tries going abegging amounting to at least 20 points.

Zahira also exceeded 20 violations of the game laws in this encounter, most of them while defending Kingswood’s strong and penetrative ‘pick and drives’. For instance, they infringed 5 times moments before the visitors scored their first Try, and therefore should be properly trained to defend legally. The only positive thing that shone in this Zahira game, was their restrictive defence and tackling that kept the visitors at bay during most parts of the game, until the Randel Hill Boys decided to bring down another Avalanche in the last 5 minutes of the game, to submerge Zahira’s hopes for a home win.

Result: Kingswood mowed Zahira 27-18

Mahanama hosting S. Thomas’ – 21 June:

After a rather horrific outing last weekend on extremely marshy conditions, Dark Horse Mahanama College returned to the very same Arena with a stellar performance to force the Thomians to slog throughout the game for their hard-earned win. This made this encounter a high-octane thriller, until the Thomians pulled ahead far enough to catch their breath, but it never stopped them from looking over their Shoulders until the last long whistle was blown.

The shocking fact of Mahanama scoring 5 converted Tries off the high-riding Thomians, overshadowed the half-a-ton scored by the winning team. It was in fact Mahanama’s special skills that aided them to make play out of nothing, and earned them a few Tries.

 

• A crisp interception executed to perfection, and what seemed like something that was grabbed out of thin air, earned Mahanama’s first spectacular Try

• It takes two to Tango, but as the Thomians were not in the mood for the groove, a Mahanamian danced solo, stepping front, stepping back, stepping sideways and all around the Thomian defenders, singing his way to another spectacular Try in the second half 

• The last one came out of a short cross-kick that was unusually collected by the kicker himself around the midfield area, that was worked in multiple phases with super quick Balls to get the home side maximum points

The other converted Tries were scored off a little help from the visitors’ infringements as usual, hence nothing interesting from a skillset perspective.

Now zooming in on the factors behind why Mahanama was so close, but yet so far from pulling off the biggest upset of the weekend, they are plain and simple. Except for the first Try that was scored by STC with a mindboggling backline switch that opened up the hosts’ defence like a yawning Hippo, the others were more or less, hand-wrapped gifts to the visitors.

•  STC scored a Try in the first half off an ‘offside’ offense inside Mahanama’s grid

• The visitors scored their last Try in the former half by capitalising on back-to-back penalties offered by Mahanama, that included a yellow card 

• The Ball was forced to be taken in, or grounded inside the in-goal area by a defender, due  to self-imposed pressure induced by continuous penalties, granted a 5m scrum to STC, off which a Try was scored 

• Mahanama tackled an opponent without the Ball close to the opposition’s 22, that resulted in a proceeding penalty touch kick that hit the 25m mark inside Mahanama’s grid, which the Thomians merrily utilised to score another Try.

In summary, Mahanama’s 20 penalties and 3 yellow cards against the Thomians’ 9 and 1 respectively, granted the free pass that the latter needed to get through this game, but gives both coaching units a lot to think about, before they face their next big challenges.

Result: Thomians outran Mahanama 50-35

St. Peter’s hosting Science – 21 June:

The Maroons from Mount exhibited astounding courage and resilience opposite the reigning League Champions, as they naively walked into an experimental Science Lab at the Brigade Fortress on Saturday.

The defending Champs dominated proceedings from the word go, flexing their Forwards’ Muscles, not giving the visitors any room to attack or take control of the game during most of the prior half. Even when the visitors initially had a go at the Peterites inside their 22, using their proven pick ‘n gos, the hosts stood Rock solid between them and the white gleaming line. Science ought to have taken the first penalty kick at the Goal at this juncture, that was offered right in front of the giant Sticks, as they should have gotten the feel for the stiffness of Pete’s resistance by that time. However, Science was too eager and enthusiastic to break through the tough defence and gain a moral victory, and to reduce the deficit early on.

Science College continued with their sudden dismal form in discipline, which they should have definitely decreased to less than 8 when they were up against a team of this calibre, as conceding 14 penalties was not going to help their cause in any way. The hosts were already in a mindset to attack continuously and impose pressure on the visitors, and the penalties that came their way, only further fuelled their onslaughts gaining them 3 easy Tries in the former half itself, with 2 of them scored off silly offenses such as, not rolling away.

After giving a pass at the first 3 penalty points, Science mostly made good decisions on what penalties they should kick to goal, except for the last one that was not straightforward, hence should have been kicked to touch. They excelled in Ball handling, and attacked at every given opportunity granted by the hosts, yet amidst some classy defence. They tackled well & hard, and the 4 knock-ons they forced is a testament to their commitment in stopping the hasty Brigade.

Apparently, it seemed as if SPC’s game discipline and their form in Ball handling, both took a nosedive along with their descent from the Hills last week, where their offenses shot up to 15 from 10, and unforced handling errors skyrocketed from 4 to a heart-stopping 13! Those are bizarre numbers considering that they are defending the Title, and are set to meet their toughest opponent in the group next week.

After being so predictable, yet unstoppable during the past few years, and opting only to play fast, open Rugby, Head Coach Sanath Martis has acknowledged the fact that SPC has to conform to the ‘Winds of change’ or fall behind, as they almost did on two occasions last year. Some other Head Coaches have also recognised this fact and have planned well ahead, and are now equipped accordingly. In preparation for this renewed facelift of the Brigade rugby, a novel strategy was employed by chiefly playing a Forwards game. Many facets of it were tested in this encounter with possibly more to come later.

How often do we witness scrum turnovers in schools’ rugby? Isipathana did one at the Knockouts, and what a delightful sight it was to witness after so many years? Well, the Brigade accomplished this feat at least 3 times in this game, and the readers should duly note that although the Science Forwards are not pushovers, they were made to look like one. The Peterites also pulled off at least 2 Ruck turnovers, that speaks a distinct dialect of their rugby. As if this wasn’t surprising enough, they purposely kicked two restart kicks on the full in order to conduct another little experiment, to find out what they could do with a turnover Ball from a 50m scrum. If you think about it, there are times at a crucial and tightly contested game, where you are left with just a few minutes before the final whistle, where Ball possession becomes a decisive factor, especially after you have conceded points. If one has mastered the turnovers in scrums, then one can use this legal trick to get possession back after kick-off. As the Brigade Forwards continuously and completely dominated the Mauls against their above-average counterparts, the speculation is for Martis to go the whole nine yards, which means that they may suddenly begin to turnover possession at the lineouts also, from their next game against the formidable Double Blue Thunder!

Result: Brigade experiments on Science 29-23

Sri Sumangala hosting Vidyartha – 21 June:

Both teams played spirited, attacking rugby, but like adolescents in the former half, intensely testing the Referee’s patience and seemingly his knowledge in the laws of the game as well, that left both teams more or less scoreless, and the spectators sighing out of sheer frustration, up until the short breather. Notably, both teams had conceded around 10 penalties each in that half, in the absence of Ball handling abilities to finish off their offensives.

It was a blessing in disguise for the annoyed audience that at least Sri Sumangala College came back as a matured A Division Rugby playing Team in the second half, to play some solid rugby that returned points. Vidyartha College on the other hand, is possibly on a pursuit to becoming the first team in recent times to exceed 20 penalties in every game they played in the League, as they successfully accomplished this target in this game as well, by doubling their offenses count in the second half, while Sumangala conceded just 2. Although needless to mention, but for the record, Sri Sumangala capitalised on an unending array of penalty opportunities granted by the visitors to attack and return with points in the bountiful half.

Result: Summa smothered Vidyartha 24-12

Ananda hosting D.S. Senanayake - 22 June:

As expected, this encounter turned out be an ultimate thrill ride with both teams attacking intensely in tandem, trying to get ahead of each other, that made the Sunday evening in Rajagiriya even brighter and merrier.

Off dire respect for the Ananda Forwards, DS chose not to contest ANY of the Ananda lineouts, but focused on their immaculate binding technique to ensure that they are in a position to defend them all. Defend is what they did quite impressively, and without collapsing any of them, although Ananda proved to be marginally stronger in the shove. A series of poor clearance kicks from Ananda, that were either kicked into the hands of DS players, or kicked to touch not too far away, saw DS constantly attacking inside Ananda’s 22 during most part of the prior half. However, DS failed to capitalise on Ananda’s vulnerability in defending ‘pick ‘n drives’, but instead ran the Ball with short passes inside Ananda 22, which the latter mostly defended with ease; and defended so well that they held up 3 DS groundings. DS Ball handling was below par with at least 8 unforced knock-ons, while Ananda added 3 by forcing some spills that really made it look bad on DS overall.

While Ananda’s Ball handling was above average, they conceded over 15 penalties, compared to a conservative 9 by DS. Consequently, a series of those penalties led to DS scoring a converted Try just before Lemons. Interestingly, 12 of those were yielded inside the hosts’ frontyard, which makes one wonder as to how DS ended up scoring only one penalty in the whole game? In addition, Ananda missed an easy conversion in front of the Posts, that would have got them to 20 points, but yet 3 points short for a win.

Result:  DSS forges ahead of Ananda 22-18

Dharmaraja hosting Isipathana - 22 June:

Although this appeared to be a tightly contested game from the outset, with a valiant effort by the Rajans to startle the Greens, regrettably it wasn’t so, and it doesn’t need much explanation to break this game down either.

	First Half	Second Half
Isipathana (Penalties / Points Conceded)	1 / 5	10 / 14
Dharmaraja (Penalties / Points Conceded)	9 / 20	5 / 12

 

 

 

 

To elaborate for readers who see numbers like Bats hanging upside down:

• Isipathana conceded only 5 points in the first half, as they gave away just a solitary penalty

• Rajans conceded 20 points by giving away 9 penalties in the first half 

• Pathana conceded 14 points by giving away a generous 10 penalties in the latter half, possibly intentionally, in order to average their offenses count, as there exists many Analysts, stalking teams, mimicking the Paparazzi, and counting stats to publish for their competitors to read 

• Rajans restricted their penalty count to 5 in the last half, and conceded 12 points

Interestingly, if one looks at the ratio of points scored per penalty conceded, Rajans’ penalties return a higher yield than Pathana’s, as the latter’s defence is stronger than the former’s.

	First Half	Second Half
Isipathana (Points per penalty ratio)	N/A	14 / 10 = 1.4
Dharmaraja (Points per penalty ratio)	20 / 9 = 2.22	12 / 5 = 2.4

 

 

 

*The first grid is inapplicable as 5 points were scored off the first Pathana knock-on, and due to insufficient data.

The above is purely a theoretical calculation that may be used to calculate the cost of a penalty, in points. However, this cost would vary depending on how good the oppositions’ penetrating capabilities are, hence could vary with different oppositions, but may be used as benchmarks.

Result:  Pathana subdues Rajans 32-19

Footnote:

Though we love to, unfortunately we are unable to analyse all 9 games played during the weekends due to time limitations, and therefore compelled to accommodate only around 5 reviews each week.

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