Sports
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Now
honing the basics should be the priority
During the week up to the 30th of April the question asked by rugby enthusiasts was whether Sri Lanka could beat China. On the 30th Sri Lanka beat China convincingly by 30 points to nil. The questions asked now are. What type of a Chinese team came to Sri Lanka? To the Lankan who witnessed the match it was joy written all over their faces. Yet there was a smirk of disappointment that the Chinese did not give a better display and thereby a better match by spectator standards. Yet the Lankans are happy and are alive to the reality that we are a step closer to round three of the Rugby World Cup qualifying round matches for the Asian Region. The dream of joining Japan and either Arabian Gulf or Korea is still alive. SL will now be meeting Hong Kong on the 14th of May. A win is not beyond the expectations of the fans. Percy
the familiar figure on the cricket grounds was in full form at Longden
Place. His well placed comments and cheering was accepted by all.
As the team does better there will be more and more to support the
national team. The Lankans now stand in 4th Place in Asia and 40th in world rankings. The challenge is now to do better or at least stay where we are. This is no easy task as the work requirement now becomes heavier. As we move up the ladder it may be necessary to smoothen out some of the rough edges. There are times in the game that needs to be revisited. At the twenty seventh minute Sri Lanka was leading 18 nil in the first half. Towards the last ten minutes one got the impression they had stopped playing as a team. The lead seemed to lull the team into complacency. The feeling was that working as a team was lost with individualism taking over. The ball was lost on many an occasion after solo efforts. The Chinese kept on attacking the goal line and it was only that they did not score. An effective leadership was lacking at this point. The Start of the second half saw the team settling down and getting on with the job in hand. That is to consolidate the lead. The score at the end of the first half was a goal a try and two penalties. In the second half there was scoring twice. One may have expected that the margin would have been greater with more scoring. An area that keeps worrying is the inability to retain the ball. Clumsy hands gave possession away. Avoidance of tackles is another issue that plagues the side. In the first half it took Sri Lanka 24 minutes to concede a penalty. By the end of the day they were guilty of conceding 9 penalties. Six of them were at the tackle of which five were for going over. Five at ruck and maul: three for incorrect joining and two for hands. The number of scrums too, had more against Sri Lanka. You have to cut down on mistakes of this nature. The player or players concerned has to be educated and skills improved. To win you must have possession. Once you have it you have to retain it. However hard working a player may be may be; if he is conceding penalties the usefulness is lost. As we now move to be among the giants of the region improvement of skills (or you call it the basics) is a must. Though there may be the unimpressed views of the performance of China and the game, there was more time the ball was on the field in this game. The number of stoppages being around 82 the game was more on the field. In a match played at 3.00pm, in the heat that was, this means there were more for the spectator to watch. No wonder China had to give in. For the first time in Sri Lanka the fans witnessed the referee allowing a water break after twenty minutes of the start of the half. It was not only the spectators who wondered why? There were officials too who seemed to have missed what the law allows. “When weather conditions are extremely hot and / or humid the referee, at his discretion, will be permitted to allow one water break in each half. This water break will be no longer than one minute…………..”
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