SYOF Rugby: Singapore Poly (yellow) defeated Temasek Poly 12-5 to win the Under-18 final. (Photo © Les Tan/Red Sports)

SYOF Rugby: Singapore Poly (yellow) defeated Temasek Poly 12-5 to win the Under-18 final. (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)

Yio Chu Kang Stadium, Sunday, July 17, 2016 — Singapore Polytechnic (SP) defeated Temasek Polytechnic (TP) 12-5 to win the Under-18 rugby final of the Singapore Youth Olympic Festival.

Four teams took part in the U-18 category – SP, TP, Raffles Institution (RI), and Catholic Junior College (CJC). RI defeated CJC 19-0 to finish third.

SP began the day with a 20-0 win over RI, then lost 7-10 to TP in their next Round 1 game. They then finished Round 1 with a 26-0 win over CJC.

TP beat CJC 7-0 in their opening game, defeated TP 10-7, then lost 12-19 to RI.

Said, Bernard Teh, 18, captain of TP and a St Andrew’s Secondary alumnus, “Everyone went all out and had fun. We are using this Rugby 7s as part of training for POL-ITE Games. We have a lot of new players, half of whom have never played before.

“We are targeting at least a top 2 finish in POL-ITE,” added Bernard. TP finished third in last year’s edition.

“Waking up early for our first 9am game was quite a task,” said SP captain, Kieren Wong, 18, with a laugh.

“This Rugby 7s was a chance to bond the team for POL-ITE. We are trying out a lot of new Year 1 players. Most of them have rugby experience. Our target is to retain the title,” added the ACS (Barker Rd) alumnus who has been playing rugby since his primary school days.

Rugby is one of 11 sports making up the festival. The other sports are athletics, fencing, 3-on-3 basketball, football 7s, badminton, sailing, shooting, table tennis, taekwondo and volleyball.

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