Sri Lanka win on their strategic play!

Singer rugby Asiad 2007:

Ken de JOODT

When Sri Lanka took the field, on Saturday November 3, to play against the taller and bigger built China Rugby team at Longdon place, ‘doubts’ of winning arose in the minds of some ‘gurus’ in the game. Man to man the Chinese ‘lengths’ and bulk seemed better and bigger than the Sri Lankan figures!

In inflicting defeat on the ‘hopeful’ Chinese Rugby XV, Sri Lanka has certainly established themselves in a great and bright hope of clinching championship honours in this ASIAD - with the ‘Finals’ been played on Saturday 10th November, at Longdon Place.

Of course, the news of Kazakhstan’ startling win over Thailand comes as a ‘shocker’! Thailand may have had problems in setting down in their first game against a fine, fit and fair Kazakhstan side.

That seems to be the confidence Kazakhstan has to do well with the possession of ball and the persistence and perseverance to penetrate the defence.

It was ‘mediocre’ display of rugby said one fair lass who is a vociferous follower of the game at the Sri Lanka vs China ‘battle’ - and this is true to a large extent.

Sri Lanka had a fair share of possession but opted to frequently kick ‘up and under’ with very little gain. So the opening stages of the game got off to a slow pace and the dull exchange of ‘kick - a heads’, killed the interest and hopes of ‘open-play’.

It was in the second half that Sri Lanka realized their ‘strengths’, in using the back-line-that vitually mesmerized the Chinese defence, with solid, precise hard running, which resulted in three good tries.

While China did not perform well, with many instances of ‘schoolboyish’ basic errors seen from time to time, it must be said that the Sri Lankan forwards consolidated well and their defence were effective. Good turn over ball was also often obtained through the hasty blunders of the Chinese forwards.

Conditions underfoot were ideally suited for Rugby which softened the hard turf-but handling of the wet ball, due to a continuous drizzle of rain, made passing of the ball a little ‘tricky’! There is no excuse when it comes to handling a ‘wet’ or ‘dry’ ball - that’s why practice individually and as a team is so vitally important!

Sri Lanka on the whole need to use their potential to score, improve on their speed and be quicker on the field, in general! As a reader of the game, it was clearly seen that positional play was not ‘spot-on’ - and movements into positions were lethargic!

These finer points, if applied after perhaps scrutinizing the ‘re-plays’ from the match videos and relieving the coach’s super directions will help to improve all round play, for the tougher matches ahead.

Thailand, Malaysia, Chinese Taipei and Kazakhstan can come up with “unexpected performances” on the day, at the time!

Sri Lanka has capitalized on the mistakes of China and survived in the opening game but their performances do not measure-up to the best. There is more “groundwork” to be done with the forwards as a ‘pack’ in loose play and the positional play of the threes which needs better understanding and working together as a team.

However, Sri Lanka did well to win this game using their ‘wits’ and ‘rugby sense’, which certainly was better than the Chinese who seemed to have some ‘spring-chickens’ at times, in the run of play! May the rugby in the future games be of greater and better quality!