Contributed by reader Yang Yue Heng of RI

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, June 9 and 11, 2008 – The Raffles Institution C Division rugby team finished their Malaysian training tour with two wins earlier this month. RI beat the Sekolah Menengah Teknik Selangor 12-10 in their first game and followed up two days later with a 28-5 win over Bintang Rugby Club.

The weather was good for the first match at the Sekolah Menengah Teknik Selangor, a secondary school in KL. We played against their U-15 side and won after many controversial incidents throughout the match. At first, the Rafflesians were shocked that the hosts punched and kicked in the scrum and ruck, and the opposition #1 eventually earned a deserved yellow card from the referee.

Things turned worse for the visitors from Singapore when they found out a lot of rules were different and the referee made many silly calls which included sending off the RI scrum-half after he tried to take the ball back from the opposition. The Rafflesians were enraged but kept their form and played with discipline without being distracted by the jeering and taunting of the opponents after they scored. During defence, RI gave so much pressure that the opponents kept making silly mistakes and the Raffles ruggers rucked hard to win the ball.

In the second half, RI finally scored and maintained the lead with continuous attacks. RI could have scored more if they did not make so many unforced mistakes and attacked more on their opponents’ blind sight.

Two days later, RI were elated to play a much more organised side on a better field at Bintang Rugby Club. Most of the opponents were foreigners and about the same age. The same referee umpired the game, which meant again the different set of rules. The referee told the Rafflesians that the no.8 was not allowed to pick the ball up from a scrum.

In the first half, RI unforced errors let them down again. However, they lead throughout the game and retained the ball quite well. The opposition could not tackle very well, which gave RI a lot of chances to gain distance and score. The RI forwards were efficient in clearing the rucks and the backs broke through several times. The defence did a fantastic job like in the first match and were able to continuously apply pressure on the opposition.

The C Division ruggers of Raffles Institution are now looking ahead to the upcoming National C Division Rugby Championship.

Let’s go all the way, Raffles!