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.