By Les Tan/Red Sports
There are championship winners, and then there are championship winners.
Last year, Catholic High won the B Division Basketball Championship while Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) won the B Division Rugby Championship.
However, the Catholic High team played 18 games to capture their crown while ACS(I) played seven.
In basketball, 115 teams started the 2008 B Division Championship while in rugby, 21 teams took to the field last year. There were no zonal rugby championships and all teams went directly into the national championship.
In the case of Catholic High, they played 10 games in the South Zone Championship before they even played their first national championship game.
However, it’s not a straightforward comparison.
Only five players start in basketball, while 15 players take to the field in rugby. Rugby fans will rightly argue that coordinating 15 players on a field is a much tougher challenge than just five on a court.
Schools in Singapore pick their sports to focus on and the fortunes of both school teams reflect that. ACS(I) has focused on rugby since the 90s and while it does have a basketball team, it doesn’t make the national championship round. Since 1997, ACS(I) have won the B Division Rugby Championship 10 times.
However, in rugby, the championship title tends to change hands between a small group of schools – St Andrew’s, Raffles Institution and ACS(I). Since 1997, only St Andrew’s (’04, ’05, ’06) and ACS(I) have won the title.
Basketball is a core focus at Catholic High and the school has won the B Division Championship four years in a row (’04 to ’08). It doesn’t have a rugby team. The B Division Basketball Championship winners though are a more diverse lot with seven schools winning the title since 1997 – Catholic High (’05-’08) Anglican High (’04, ’01), Presbyterian High (’03), Chai Chee Secondary (’02), Yishun Secondary (’99), Jurong (’00, ’98), Assumption English (’97).
It seems schools decide what sports to focus on based on the probability of winning an honour, according to some Red Sports readers.
In St Andrew’s, football was dropped as a Co-Curricular Activity (CCA) in the 90s because the school wanted to focus on rugby.
Commented reader PK, “…the school admin at St Andrew’s decided during that time that soccer was not helping rugby as many soccer players were doing double duty – rugby and soccer. They felt that by closing soccer down, the rugby programme would improve…one reason might also be they felt that soccer could not win them any medals.”
ACS(I) won 10 championship titles in 2008 to finish tied with Hwa Chong Institution as a top boys school for sports, but only two of their titles came in team sports – rugby and cricket.
Cricket has even fewer schools competing than rugby – only ten will contest the 2009 B Division Cricket Championship.
ACS(I) has a traditional strength in water polo but, again the sport sees few teams – only seven teams contested the 2008 B Division Water Polo Championship.
However, focusing on sports where few compete gives a school the chance to pick up championship titles, something that Red Sports reader YC commented on.
“In general, Singapore sports is very result-oriented, many times to the detriment of actual sporting development. We give up long-term progress for short-term (or instant) results.”
“Why do we see more participation in basketball vs football (in result-oriented Singapore)? It’s a 5-man vs 11-man game. To win a soccer tournament, you need to invest a lot more athletes compared to basketball. The ‘head count saved’ for sending a basketball team could be very well ploughed into another sport with potential for more results.”
This may be why few schools are willing to endure the high-investment, low-return nature of rugby. In fact, 21 schools starting the 2008 championship is an improvement over earlier decades where as few as eight schools participated.
Rugby also isn’t a natural game for beginners, unlike basketball, which is more straightforward and requires less space for a pickup game.© Red Sports
What about girls’ sports? I would think the more obvious debate in girls’ schools is traditionally between netballers and basketballers. The basketballers (guilty!) like to think of ourselves as the tougher, more boyish sport… but we played a friendly game with the netballers (at netball) and we got thrashed so badly I can’t even put up the score here :/ netball may look like a girly sport but it’s actually much tougher than all these male sports which… rely on bashing into each other.
@Athena: More girls play netball than bball right? I think shooting baskets in netball looks harder than bball. No backboard, for one. You have to get it spot on.
This is the whole trick. Go for games where few schools participate and it will be as easy as ABC.
I really think that there was no need for an article like that. This discussion is as old as time, and from time to time, you do see the odd t hirt that has ‘If WaterPolo were any easier, it’d be called Rugby’.
You can’t really compare apple and orange.
Yes the B-ballers had more matches to play, heck some of my cousins are school B-ball reps, and they put my timed runs to shame! Did I mention they’re only in secondary school.
Different sports require different sets of skills.
In basket, correct me if I’m wrong, there is no such thing as defenders hang back and strikers up front, because all 5 players have to run back and forth in both A and D. There is also the need to shoot, be nimble on your feet – etc.
In rugby, the adage of ‘a game for all shapes and sizes’ has never been mroe true. If you’re on the big side, you might end up as a forward. BUT, if you have the necessary skill set, you can end up in the backline. Here, there is more need for explosiveness and strength in general due to the nature of the game with rucks, mauls, tackles, etc. You also need to kick 😉
Oh by the way, Basketball is an off-shoot of the game of rugby.
I would say that rugby would be slightly tougher because athletes have to get stuck in for two 40 minute sessions, and will all the banging around, studies have shown that in a professional rugby match, the cumulative bashing amounts to a 60km/h car crash. I’m not too sure bout school boy rugby. And when you take into account the ‘short’ 40 -50m sprints, its significantly more than a full court sprint in B-ball.