Isipathana v Trinity: An Interesting Result

Trinity dominated the line out. Trinity dominated the scrum. Trinity dominated the collision. Trinity dominated territory. Trinity dominated possession. 

The only thing Isipatana had more, was Heart. With a capital ‘H’. 

It is amazing that a team with such an average line out, and mediocre kicker, have been able to come out unscathed against bigger, stronger opposition like Royal and St. Peters. They did this, because they played with more brains, and chiefly, more heart. 

Trinity, with their battalion of foreign coaches and trainers, were by far the more professional looking outfit. They were structured, they looked good, had better bench strength, and were dominant in the contact area. The script looked formulaic, with the Patana damn expected to burst at about the 65 minute mark. But like Hans sticking his fingers in the dyke [how wrong does that simile sound?], the Green Machine withstood the Trinity Army. 

Even at 21 – 12 in the second half, Isipatana didn’t look safe. But the grim determination they displayed helped them close out the game in the same way they did against Royal. Guneratne, Bandara and Silva shaded their third row counter parts Rangala and the Samarasekeras by just a little bit. But it was enough. Added to that the defensive work rate of the Patana midfield was oustanding, as were the one on one tackles they found themselves faced with more than once.

Captain Tarindra Ratwatte playing at inside centre, pairing off with the deceptively accelerating Thisula Perera at fly half, caused problems with several line breaks. However, they were unable to captalise on these and committed some, well…schoolboy…errors in execution. Isipatana however, were deadly with counter attack ball and seem to attack with more instinct. Skipper and scrum half Sooriyarachchi’s try was a poacher’s effort as he pounced on to Chang’s knock on and flashed past the lip service effort of full back Sheik, whose lateral movement seems a little suspect.

The Isipatana team had a game plan which was clearly to kick to senior man Lochana Girahagama, who views the high ball as a Taliban fighter would view a drone. The tactic paid off, and the hard work of winger Gallage in particular in chasing up Kongahawatte’s precision kicks disrupted Trinity’s defensive structure. However, Isipatana could perhaps have occasionally sprung a surprise by running the ball, although you can hardly fault a team for sticking to a tactic that works. 

With the emptying of the benches, it was clear that Isipatana would dominate upfront. But while this did yield late tries for Ratwatte and Girahagama, a mistake on the line saw Isipatana get out of jail with some solid body-on-the-line defending. Their score in the second half rattled the Trinitians, and Walpola’s charges show good composure with the ball in hand, except in the line out. It is startling to see a first XV team which is so bad at line out time, and Deysatha the hooker must find his jumpers at least 50% of the time if his team are to continue winning. It is an area of Patana’s game that will complete the team. Umalka Guneratne is a good enough no.8 to rescue a backward moving scrum. However, given the number of line outs in a game, and given that they cannot kick from range, Isipatana simply have to improve. Simplify. 

Trinity will go back to the drawing board, and ask themselves why discontinued coach Nilufer Ibrahim was good enough to beat the team he built, with another team of exclusively local coaches. There is a vast gap in funding between the two teams, and Trinity’s supporters will be wondering why they have been unable to annex a league title since 1987, given the money they are spending. If they aren’t asking that question, they should be. 

The issue – for Trinity is not in the coaching. It’s in the boys that cross the line. Coaches lose control after that, and it rests in the boys’ hands.

Money can’t buy heart.