If you would like to know what a well drilled Rugby team looks like, go to the replay of last Sunday’s feature match in Nittawela and watch the Kandy Sports Club’s performance against the Navy Sports Club.
Match Replay – Kandy SC v Navy SC – Dialog Rugby 16/17 – 15th Jan
There you will see a team that does all of the basics well. Well most of the basics well as there are always areas in which teams can improve. However it is a good example of the way teams can add team work to a team of stars to produce mouthwatering moves that can unite a town. Let us break the game down into bite sized pieces to digest the tasty display that Kandy put on for their supporters.
Defence is a good place to start and we know it has been a feature for the Sailors this season. Instead of Navy winning the defence it turned out to be the Kandy team that were dominant. The line speed of the defence choked the Navy attack as defenders were often coming from the outside shoulder to tackle attackers on their blindside. A dangerous ploy by a defending team because it often leaves a hole in the line if the attack gets outside the edge of the defence. Not this time, not on their home ground and not when the team is playing like they are all brothers in arms.
Read: For teams who go into matches as underdogs
A feature of the Kandy attack was the depth at which players ran onto the ball. Often the blindside winger was bought in to supplement the back attack with man of the match Richard Dharamapala running hard, on an angle at the 12 / 13 channel in one instance, to set up the straight running Fazil Marija to score under the posts. Running from depth means that players are working off the ball to get into position but having depth is only half of the magic trick. Often players could be seen to take the ball flat and at the advantage line when gaps appeared but a common theme prevailed, attacking players were all running on to the ball and they executed a very basic draw and pass skill that works in the U10 academy teams as well as in the international arena.
The set-piece is the most consistent source of possession, both line out and scrum, and Kandy showed an accuracy and precision in these two facets that we have not seen in the Dialog Rugby League all season. The line out was particularly impressive with driving mauls being formed from both short and full line outs. Players knowing their roles in both forms takes repetition and correct coaching cues for players to understand why they are performing certain skill sets so adjustments can be made to produce the desired outcomes. Defensively the Kandy forwards were able to disrupt the Navy line out so the driving maul was not part of the Welisara teams arsenal on the day. The forward domination continued at scrum time and one could see the power of a scrum that was lower, tighter and who’s timing was a little more on song than the Navy SC forwards.
Read Also: Tough stance on dangerous tackle
Maybe it had something to do with the contact drill the team performed after the special guest had met the players and before the kick off, or maybe they just came to the ground with a mental edge but it was the evident from the first collision that Kandy intended to do whatever it took to win every contact they had with Navy. Coaches often talk about games 
being won up front and this game is the perfect example of a team winning the collision, winning the contact and winning the advantage line. Navy did not lie down and roll over by any means but the ferocity with which the Kandy Sports Club went about their business left no place for the Sailors to go but backwards.
It was just one of those days that rugby players dream of. The sun is shining, the crowd are in full voice, the wind is at your back, all of the passes go to hand and the ball bounces perfectly in your favour each time. It does not happen as often as it should but sometimes, when all of the hours of training pays off, you look like you are part of a well drilled team. A team that enjoys it’s rugby
FROM THE SIDELINES BY PAUL TOIA
