RUGBY

Kiwi Cup
St Andrew’s Combined XV vs Raffles Combined XV
Saturday, 30 June 2007 at Raffles Junior College

Story by Red Sports reader, flyingoverinahelicopter. Thanks!

It was a great day for the die-hard fans of rugby from schoolboys to adults. This was what rugby is all about – true competitiveness on the field, and light hearted banter and drink off it.

The 2007 Kiwi Cup was trimmed to one game this year, with logistics and practicality cited as reasons. It was a hark back to the old ethos of rugby – the best Raffles had to offer versus the best of St Andrews regardless of division.  The best players from Sec 1 to  second year Junior College players would be on show.

Raffles headed into the game still brimming with confidence from winning the 2007 Police Cup National ‘A’ Division Championship. As predicted, a very strong RJC team came out representing Raffles, with only one Secondary 4 forward representing Raffles Institution.

St Andrew’s came in as underdogs, their ‘A’ Division team losing semifinalists whilst the ‘B’ Division team were losing finalists. They fielded a more mixed team, an extremely strong pack. It helped that most of the Saints played together in three ‘B’ Division winning teams, and that experience proved the difference.

From the start, the Saints looked hungry for the ball, and ran the ball wide in attack, off solid forward dominance. Raffles backs looked menacing, but their forwards seemed to be over-matched by the Saints.

Captain Lee Chee Meng and centre Stuart Ho of Raffles looked dangerous, but the Saints had the hard defense of Jesse Quek and Robert Lim to thank for shackling them. Great forward momentum from the Saints and brilliant reading from scrum half Chan Ming Qi saw standoff Robert Lim score halfway in the 1st half. Unconverted, the saints led 5-0.

The rest of the game was a see-saw battle that saw Raffles slowly edge back into the game with power running from John W and brilliant open play running from Chris Fang, Anwar and Kevin Neo.

The last 20mins of the game was a nail-biter, with the saints scoring off a penalty move, backrow Mark Sim staying strong in the tackle to unload for winger Abel Teo to score. Unconverted again, the Saints led 10-0. Raffles awoke from that and came storming back with a try of their own, but in the end, the clock ran out, and the Saints had beaten a predominately RJC side on their home ground 10-5.

All in all it was a great experience, not only of school boy rugby, but also a walk back in time. The old boys from each school squared off in two games – Open category and Veterans. It was an array of current and ex-national players, club players and old warriors mixing it up. It was great to see the ‘master of the kick’ Gilbert Soh from Saints work his magic against old foe and national team mate Terrence Koh in the veterans game. What a sight, to see them play against each other and see their magic still evident despite jobs, kids and age!