Grappling at any level, an unhealthy sign for the game
View(s):The Junior Lankan’s performed well in the Asian Under-20 Junior Tournament having beaten Singapore but lost to Hong Kong 24-13 last Wednesday.
The game between CR and Police was fare better than of Havlocks and Air Force last weekend - Pic by M.D. Nissanka
At the time of writing they have one more match to play against Chinese Taipei. Hong Kong who has to play Singapore looks certain of winning the tournament.
The Sri Lankans lost in a close fight which was a win thrown away by missing kickable penalties and conversions. Having only a one point behind Hong Kong after 60 minutes, the fighting Junior Tuskers succumbed through errors under pressure.
The continued nurturing of these players who had to bear anxious moments due to leg pulling is a must as we proceed with these young hopefuls.
Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) had its Annual General Meeting in Thailand last week. Koji Tokamasu of Japan has taken over control of the ARFU being elected as President.
Aga Hussein of India has been elected as Vice President while Qais Aldhalai of the United Arab Emirates has been elected as the Secretary General.
The contestant for the post of President was Sri Lanka’s Asanga Seneviratne who was Secretary General of ARFU and also President of Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) up to the time a Competent Authority was appointed by the former Minister of Sports.
Probably this will give Seneviratne more time to concentrate on Sri Lanka Rugby as the Ministry of Sports apparently has cleared to contest.
With a World Cup to be hosted by Japan in 2019 and the present dominance of Asian Rugby after the performance at the last World Cup, it is no doubt a look at the Asian giant that conferred the ARFU presidency on their shoulders.
Asia is becoming a region where World Rugby is setting sight considering the huge marketing opportunities in numbers that live in this part of the world.
This year too the HSBC World Seven’s Series sees three teams in the ARFU region hosting Sevens namely: Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore who replace Japan who hosted a series tournament last year.
The World Sevens Rugby 2015-2016 Series consists of ten rounds of which Dubai and Cape Town are over. The others to come are Wellington, Sydney, Las Vegas, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris and London.
Sevens currently is getting popular and being carted almost all over the world with annual rotations in place. This will help the game to progress as we see a World Cup only once in four years. Sevens in 2015/16 is every month up until May 2016. March April and May will see a series every two weeks.
Canada beat New Zealand, Scotland beat England and Samoa, Kenya beat South Africa and USA and Australia beat the USA, France beat Fiji, Argentina beat New Zealand and the list goes on.
It is turning to be an entertainment Seven’s Series show that anyone can beat anyone and it is not yet half way through. It is interesting that after the first two of ten the World Series, Fiji, South Africa and USA are leading the overall table while Argentina lie in fourth place.
While rugby is exciting around the world, Kandy Sports Club and Havelocks remain unbeaten at the end of four weeks with CR&FC standing next.
So far it does not seem that any other team including the Red Shirts who have performed at a level that will challenge the two teams at the top. Kandy SC has amassed huge scores in every match and has added bonus points.
This makes a problem for any other to get close. Havelocks cannot be very happy with their performances during the last two weeks. The only point they have to produce as an excuse is that six of their players have been released for Junior national duty.
Whatever it is the match between Havelocks and Kandy will draw much interest next week. After seeing more grappling than rugby in the previous weeks there was much relief as the game began to flow this week.
There was a flow but it was slow like a slow drain down a clogged gutter pipe. There was less “Porakema” – (grappling) as how a rugby fan described the game.
The other side of the story; that was murmured as repartee was to say “what do you expect when the men are fourth in Asia and women are eighth of eight”.
The CR vs Police game saw the ball being moved down the line and the momentum of the forwards was to gain ground. This was seen as a better game compared to what was in the previous weeks of rugby.
The boys were willing to run and a number of tries were scored. The mingling in the grumbling continues as referees are quick to whistle for tackler not releasing or the tackled player not releasing the ball.
The good thing I have seen in this is that players seem to be aware of what is expected.
Wonder whether the Police showed a lack of will as they went about the game with stars shining occasionally. Was the cloud filled evenings hiding the shiny stars and lulling them to sleep was a question that was asked.
The spending on names and big ones at that does not seem to be delivering. The sad story as I see is the frustration of players who are probably aging and being in the receiving end of yellow cards.
The quip of the week was the flow of yellow cards may need a review by the Police commission.
Havelocks were somewhat lucky as they beat Air Force who gave the better performance of theirs in this year’s tournament. Probably this was the best game Air Force played this season.
The flyers had a solid defence and were good at the ruck. Yet the inability to retain the ball and some indiscipline in executing skills at the appropriate time was the bane of their performance.
Two tries they gifted, at the start of each half, probably was the difference between a flying win that was marked to the Park Club boys. Havelocks on the other hand cannot be happy with the performance which has a lot to go to match Kandy.
In Kandy, Army started off as though they were to shake the hills as they took an early lead of 10-3 but ended up losing by a big margin.
That shows where Army was made to stand after an early lead and where Kandy ran to. They worked that ball and ran to the Army line and kept adding to the score board.
* Vimal Perera is a former player, coach, referee and an IRB Accredited Referees’ Educator
