Schoolboy aggression and Shahid Zumri’s rugby show for Isipatana

By A Special Sports Correspondent

Isipatana College proved to be top contenders for the inter-school league rugby title on yet another occasion when they demolished D.S. Senanayake College with a smashing 22-6 win at Havelock Park last week. The Green Shirts are playing cohesive rugby and promising the quality of a club game each time they take to the field. We are seeing school rugby being played very competitively and much money is invested each season to ensure that the players get the best facilities to be involved in the game; hence the quality of rugby we see.

But in this league featuring schoolboys one must remember or keep in mind that the coaches are dealing with children and there are limits and also boundaries where expectations and aggression can or should reach. In the match against Isipatana and D.S. Senanayake (DSS) the referee was heard telling both captains more than once that aggression must be controlled. He was heard adding “if you cannot do it as captains I then know how to control them”. A captain must have the ability within to control his players and it must be taken note of that a captain’s role is not complete just by dazzling in the slot he is played in.

The player to watch in the Isipatana camp was centre Shahid Zumri. He produced a wonderful try in the first half with a scintillating run through the DSS defence and in the second half fed a try which many rugby fans haven’t seen in many years. At a time when rugby is more a game of brawn than skill it was welcoming to see Zumri making a break and then doing a flip pass in Fiji style in the process of offloading the ball and then having a hand again in the try in another feeding move. So in other words he had the ball in his hands twice before the try was produced and didn’t show any selfishness in trying to go over the line himself. The only little setback for the winners was kicker Rinesh Silva having kept his kicking boots at home; the place kicker missing three conversions and an attempt at converting a penalty. Those kicks if they were accurate would have swelled the score line. DSS played well but playing anything less than your best against a team like Isipatana can spell disaster; the final score line suggests that.

Isipatana’s Shahid Zumri (right) encounters
aggression from a D.S. Senanayake player
while returning after scoring his team’s
second try in a Division 1 Segment A rugby
match of the inter-school under 19 league
rugby tournament played at Havelock Park.
(Pix by Kamal Wanniarachchi)

The other game that produced breathtaking moments was the one between Wesley and St. Anthony’s played in Colombo where the lads from Katugastota pulled off a thriller. Any high-scoring game entertains no doubt but what can be said about defence? Both teams must work on tackling.

But leave that aspect of the game aside the Anthonians had the edge in the second half and many thought deserved to win. The man who spearheaded the win was skipper Sahan Keerthisiri who marveled everyone with his kicking skills. He tested the Wesley defence with his up and unders and kicks to touch and slotted in a penalty from a distance of 52 metres in the second half to put his team in front at a time when Wesley were leading 22-20. Mention must be made of St. Anthony’s College back line players Tyrone Mariyadas and Ravindu Welagedara for scoring brilliant tries, the former in the first and the latter in the second. These tries really rattled the Wesley team.

But Wesley was not in the mood to cave in and produced tries through Abdullah Sideek (2), Kaizer Lye (1), C. Nimsara (1) while Abdul Haadhi converted three tries and knocked over a penalty.

Another team that is showing all the makings of striking gold this season is Royal College which did well to down Zahira College 44-3 in Colombo. Royal opened out in the second half and raked in six tries and also earned two penalties. Four converted conversions also added to the final Royal score line. As for Zahira it was a first half game and they had no answer when Royal opened the floodgates on them in the second session of the game.

The other teams which produced wins in the fourth week of the tournament were St. Peter’s, Vidyartha and St. Joseph’s, which outplayed Kingswood in Kandy by 48 points to 15. Skipper Navin Marasinghe produced a hat-trick of tries which helped post his side’s first win this season.