Dialog Schools Rugby League 2025 - Week 4 Tactical Analysis

Winds of Change alters course of the League

The heat was turned up last weekend, with the Nuts & Bolts of See-saws all over the Island screwed tightly in order to pave the way for a series of gripping tug-of-wars for supremacy, in the top and middle tiers of the ‘A Division’. Upsets galore, masses left shocked, some speechless, unfilled Havelock Club post-match, analysts scratching their heads unable to comprehend what just happened, at the game changing weekend of the Dialog Schools Rugby League 2025.

 

Sri Sumangala hosting Thurstan – 27 June:

Coming up from the lower Division last season, these two sides have levelled up their skills and game considerably, to be somewhat worthy of playing in the top Division. Steep progression is observed in things such as player conditioning to suit respective positions, positive attitude, attacking mindset, diverse rugby skillsets, but mostly, the will to perform to the best of their abilities. Both teams exhibited these attributes in this encounter right from the kick-off.

The hosts Sri Sumangala shined in stealing the Ball like Monkeys stealing Bananas, with exceptionally super quick skills that cannot be coached by “summa” Coaches. While observing their game, one can’t help but notice that a knowledgeable coaching unit has put in tremendous effort in uplifting not only the rugby skills, but primarily the rugby instincts of the team. Summa managed to steal the Ball a couple of times, while extracting 4 ‘holding on’ offenses from the opposition. Two Tries were scored using refined ‘pick ‘n drive’ skills, while a couple of lineout turnovers raised a few eyebrows in awe, as even some elite teams have been struggling to accomplish this feat, not only in this season, but in the past seasons as well. Moreover, the hosts’ sheer competitiveness combined with fierce tackling caused 4 forced knock-ons in the visiting side.

Thurstan on the other hand, started off impressively with a flawless gameplay that got them to 13 points in quick time. They showed skills in mauling, evasive flamboyant running and a shocking Drop Goal. How many top tier teams have managed to pull off a Drop Goal this season so far? Their Maul defence was pristine and never once offended by collapsing the opposition Mauls, which is an important safety aspect as well. Junior Forwards Coaches can learn from watching the undefeatable mauling techniques executed by Thurstan this year against superior oppositions as well, both while attacking with, and defending Mauls.

However, both teams fell far too short on game discipline touching the 20 count mark, which was counterproductive to their gameplan. Excessive penalties hinder the planned game strategized by the respective coaching units, and squanders valuable time, energy and resources spent on hundreds of hours of training and planning for the games. Both teams were unable to defend without conceding an array of penalties, that ultimately resulted in the attacking team scoring. As both sides have now elevated themselves to a level where they could play some captivating and competitive rugby, that is worth the Spectators’ money, these unwarranted penalties only undermine the respective gameplays, and hinder the achievements that could be accomplished by these teams. The recommendation would be for both coaching units to curtail their offenses to 10 or lower, that would undoubtably uplift the standards of the game, while allowing both teams to carry out their respective game plans effectively.

Result: Summa surge past Thurstan 33-20

D.S. Senanayake hosting Science - 27 June:

It was an intense clash between the two sides to get ahead of each other in the former half, and also until a while after; but once Science momentarily relaxed their grip on the floodgates and discipline, it rained Tries for the Donz. Thereafter, the late surge proved to be insufficient for the Scientists.

Science dished out an impressive performance in this encounter, but unfortunately it wasn’t constant. They would have definitely gone home happier, had they played aggressive and attacking rugby from the word go, until the final whistle. However, they revealed their “A Game” briefly on two occasions, along with their stiff Tails pointing upwards; once when DS received two yellow cards in tandem for dangerous plays, using which they scored two consecutive Tries before Lemons to lead 15-12. Although they were expected to return with the same fury, they seemed rather subdued at the restart, that transferred controls to the Donz.

The visitors obliged the hosts by knocking on close to their 10 meters soon after the restart kick, and thereby handed over the Reins to DS for them to rope in their “chugga chugga choo choo” Train of Tries. These Tries were scored off Science offenses, as well as the brilliant attacking and stimulating gameplay by the Donz. The hosts showed their superiority in their Forwards skills by scoring 3 ‘pick ‘n drive’ Tries, and a solitary Maul Try. They also made it quite tough for the visitors to score off ‘pick ‘n gos’, and impossible off Mauls with their stiff defence, enhanced by excellent binding techniques, whilst not collapsing any of the Science Mauls. Their Ball handling was flawless in this game, where they knocked it down from 8 unforced knock-ons to a mere 2.

Science College suddenly came alive in the dying minutes of the game, by giving themselves a shot of adrenaline, as their intent, body language and their game showed some urgency and dominance that overpowered a mellowed DS defence, to go on a frantic rampage and score 2 quick converted Tries, that unfortunately proved too short. Science did not go home empty handed following this loss, instead walked away with 2 points, one for scoring 4 Tries, and the other for losing by 7 points.

Result:  DSS bulldoze dozing Science in 2^nd half 36-29

Wesley hosting St. Peter’s – 28 June:

The might of the Double Blue Thunder proved to be way too heavy for the Bamba Brigade to handle, as they were brick walled from trespassing on Wesley’s front yard throughout the game. The defending champions were completely barred from advancing by all possible means, by one of the strongest defences witnessed so far in this League, that makes one wonder if any team can breach this defence sufficient times in order to beat them? The blazing performance delivered by Wesley’s Muscle and Mind in this game, hoists them as one of the top contenders to be glorified with the League Title in 2025.

Pete’s started off attacking with pick and drives quite confidently, but the Wesley Forwards kept them at bay, and at times proceeded to drive them off to Sea as well. To be unmetaphorical, the Wesley Forwards managed to push SPC’s pick and drive attack back from their 5m to the 22m mark. Yet, the visitors were adamant on pursuing with the failed approach during the course of the whole game, at the expense of feeding their Backline. Even during the few occasions when the Backs received the Ball, they were not able to get too far, mostly due to Wesley’s thundering tackles that forced nearly 10 knock-ons. This is a phenomenal figure that was not attained even on extremely rainy days on soggy Fields. SPC was lousy in place kicking, and was not anywhere near the level where League Champions should be. Incidentally, 2 penalty kicks and an easy conversion were kicked astray, depriving them 8 points and a respectful losing margin.

The Mauls were completely dominated by Wesley as well, scoring 2 Maul Tries with Peter’s showing little or no ability to hold them off, and thereby ended up conceding two ‘collapsing maul’ penalties in addition. The Double Blues made limited errors in Ball handling, and restricted their penalty count to an improved 15. As Wesley slowly accumulated points, their defence remained potent; even when they reached 23-nil, their defence was still on red alert mode with enhanced focus, as if the scores were still level, that goes to show how true Champions play!

Result: Brigade busted by Wesley 23-5

Zahira hosting Isipathana – 28 June:

After thoroughly disappointing their fanbase in their last outing, Zahira College bounced back with their ‘A Game’ to unleash a spectacular game of rugby in front of a packed Zahira Ground. It was a Carnival atmosphere at Maradana with all sorts of vibrant, beautiful colours of clothing decorating the Pavilions, mimicking a sanctuary of migrant Birds. The liveliness reflected in Zahira’s game as well, owing to the work done by the coaching unit to correct the mistakes made in the previous game. Their Ball handling was improved substantially, and place kicking was polished to an astonishingly blinding shine.

Zahira started off with a pristine game, free of fouls and handling errors, hence was able to pounce on the back-to-back offenses committed by the visitors to score the first Try. Thereafter, Zahira began to slowly accelerate their offenses count, that was promptly used by the opposition to gain territory and accelerate their scoring, only to pause for the break leading 26-8. During this period, Zahira didn’t have any form of defence tactics against the Pathana Mauls, that was further hindered by 3 ‘maul collapsing’ offenses, which resulted in the visitors frequently playing inside the hosts’ private backyard.

First Half	Zahira	Pathana
Penalties	7	7
Unforced Handling Errors	1	0
Forced Handling Errors	2	1
Points Conceded	26	8

Zahira’s poorly executed clearance kick in the latter half was blocked by a defender to earn a Try. Thereafter, the visitors scored only one more Try in the latter half, aided by Zahira’s consecutive offside offenses. Other than for a few shortcomings from Zahira such as the ones described above, the home team had a successful outing, and as the stats indicate, their defending capability is much lower than their opponents, and that is the very reason as to why they should have kept their penalty count to less than 10, to have a fair chance of winning this game.

Second Half	Zahira	Pathana
Penalties	6	6
Unforced Handling Errors	4	2
Forced Handling Errors	2	0
Red Cards	0	1
Points Conceded	12	19

Zahira’s resurgence in the last quarter was enabled by a red card issued to Isipathana when they were leading 33-15.

Result: Pathana Mauled Zahira 38-27

St. Anthony’s hosting Ananda – 28 June:

The field-play of this game progressed as if it was directly played out of the script from our tactical forecast of this encounter.

 

• The visitors faced challenges in containing Anthony’s Backline, and their defence gaped slightly while the defenders slacked more than lightly, to allow the Eagles to glide towards their first and last Tries in the opening half

• The hosts were mounted with the demanding chore of holding off the Ananda Forwards bound in Mauls, but couldn’t stop them from scoring 2 Maul Tries 

• As SACK has previously portrayed their inability to completely halt, but only slow down Tries scored using the skills of the Forwards, they mostly relied on their Backs to make up for the points conceded 

• Mowing through the SACK defence was indeed overwhelming and time consuming, even with their hefty Pack for Ananda

The only unexpected turn of events in the game was Antho’s sudden ability to attack with, and defend ‘pick ‘n drives’ adequately well. This steeply improved skill saved many imminent Tries close to their Goal line, and completely prevented Ananda from scoring off this method. Although Ananda managed to score 2 Tries employing their Mauls, Anthony’s held a few of them back quite well, that the visitors had to move the Ball out of the Mauls to continue their onslaughts. In addition, a Maul turnover saved another certain Try for SACK, that indicates that their Maul defending skills are being enhanced presently. These are noteworthy and useful skills upgrades, that would aid them in their next quest against Science and beyond.

Ananda’s lapse in defence formation at times, coupled with poor tackling choices allowed the hosts to run away with the game in the prior half, even though Ananda maintained pristine stats.

First Half	Antho	Ananda
Penalties	7	2
Unforced Handling Errors	7	3
Points Conceded	13	20

SACK’s continuous persistence in not letting Ananda pick and drive towards their line of prestige in the latter part of the second half, paved the way for Ananda to improvise tactically, and score the winning converted Try. In this game changing play, the Ball was first kicked into the hosts’ in-goal area, and was promptly charged, forcing the defender to ground it. The proceeding goal-line drop-out was also returned with an up-and-under to land in front of the Posts, that was also tactically chased and possessed to cross over with to the other side.

Result: Ananda stunned Antho 30-27

Kingswood hosting Mahanama – 29 June:

Following a rather subdued outing out of Kandy last weekend, Kingswood returned to its action-packed busy approach of attacking rugby, to rattle and overwhelm a highly competitive and optimistic, evenly abled fellow Dark Horse Mahanama. Although their game was far from perfect, the fact that they returned to playing their new found brand of rugby was highly compelling.

The home team scored its first Try off consecutive penalties conceded by the visitors followed by a lineout throw inside Mahanama’s 10. As Mahanama’s ever enthusiastic and highly-optimistic jumpers contest all of their lineouts like a prayer, including the ones in their 5m, they could not bind on time to halt the momentum the Maul had already gathered, although Kingswood had to finish off the task with a few ‘pick and gos’.

Kingswood’s series of penalties also got the visitors attacking beyond the hosts’ 5m mark, but were spilled eventually, like fresh Milk spilt on Desert Sand. To make amends, Mahanama’s #10 made a brilliant 50m break, all the way from his own 45m to get to Kingswood’s 5m with some fine evasive sprinting to score the first Try, but with a little help from his Friends at the end. Since Mahanama’s discipline and Ball handling was dreadful in the former half, they could not score beyond this solitary Try.

First Half	Mahanama	Kingswood
Penalties	12	7
Unforced Handling Errors	5	3
Forced Handling Errors	1	3
Points Conceded	20	7
Points / Penalty Ratio	1.6	1

Although Mahanama managed to improve their disciplined, possibly following a slap received on their wrists during the break, they not only continued their dismal Ball handling form, but passed the Bug to Kingswood as well. The hosts flopped 3 imminent Tries in the latter half due to an unforced knock-on, a forced knock-on and a forward pass. Their offenses count also rose sky high to grant the visitors the opportunity to attack, but limited by their blunders with the Ball.

Second Half	Mahanama	Kingswood
Penalties	5	9
Unforced Handling Errors	6	9
Forced Handling Errors	1	1
Points Conceded	7	10
Points / Penalty Ratio	1.4	1.1

The above points / penalty ratio indicates that Kingswood performed better in defence than Mahanama, despite their poor Ball handling in the second session, which incidentally improved Mahanama’s ratio.

Result: Kingswood outplayed Mahanama 27-17

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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