Story and photos by Joash Chow/Red Sports

St. Andrew’s Ashton Lim (#9) grounds the ball to score his team’s third try. (Photo 1 © Joash Chow/Red Sports)

St. Andrew’s Ashton Lim (#9) grounds the ball to score his team’s third try. (Photo 1 © Joash Chow/Red Sports)

Jurong West Stadium, Thursday, 25 April 2024 — St. Andrew’s Secondary School will be hoping to retain the National School Games B Division Rugby cup after defeating Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) 31-0 in the semi-final.

St. Andrew’s took little more than a minute to open the scoring. A well-coordinated kick behind the Barker defence led to a try finished in the corner by winger Eldric The (SA #27).

ACS(BR) were in a good position to respond as they spent the next period in the Saints half. The boys from Barker Road came within a metre of the try line but were stopped short. St. Andrew’s was shown a yellow card as Jedd Tng (SA #1) was penalised in his defensive attempts.

The 14-men Saints persisted with their defensive efforts, driving ACS(BR) back from their tryline. A knock-on from Barker returned possession back to Saints.

St. Andrew’s did not wait to hit back. From the scrum, the Saints backline move created space on the wing. Scrumhalf Ashton Lim (SA #9) received an offload on the inside as he ran to the try line. Unfortunately for the Saints, the play was called back as the offload had gone marginally forward.

The Saints soldiered on and soon scored a try through inside centre Jareb Seow (SA #12) to bring his side up 10-0.

St. Andrew’s continued to exert their dominance, with their forwards stepping-up distinctly in the scrums.

A Saints-dominated scrum led the ball to pop out, with scrumhalf Ashton Lim (SA #9) nipping the ball and running in for an easy try. Vice-captain Travis Goh (SA #10) successfully converted to round-off the scoring for the first half at 17-0.

St. Andrew’s did not wait long to continue racking up points in the second half.

At the 43rd minute, Travis Goh (SA #10) added another seven points for Saints. From a scrum five metres from the AC tryline, Goh (SA #10) threw a dummy-pass and slid through the gap to ground the ball under the posts. Goh then successfully converted his try.

Saints once again found themselves short as the St Andrew’s #18 was shown a yellow card for a late tackle.

Although they were a man down, the Saints managed to extend their lead. Brendan Liu (SA #8) took a penalty quick tap 5 metres from the Barker tryline to dive in for a try against an offside ACS(BR) defence. Travis Goh (SA #10) converted to make it 31-0.

With 11 minutes to go, the game ground to a halt as the lightning alert siren activated.

Both sides were raring to go as play resumed. An intense Barker’s defence prevented the Saints from scoring any further more points.

St. Andrew’s were again down to 14 men after Damien Chvojka (SA #4) was shown a yellow card for an offside offence.

Barker quickly followed suit after Kyle Ng (AC #30) was sent off for kicking a St. Andrew’s player.

The match was brought to a close as ACS(BR) knocked-the-ball-on in last play.

Saints ‘B’ Division head coach, Ashraf Nasser, said: “I think they did pretty well in terms of what we needed to do.”

“As a whole, we were looking at coming into the tournament not thinking that we are champions because that was last year’s team,” said the Saints coach.

“Like I said to them, to win a championship is easy, to defend a championship is harder.”

SAJC vice-captain Travis Goh (SA #10) said, “We’ll work on our discipline, reduce the number of mistakes we make and the number of cards we get… put 110% into every training to win the final for the second year in a row.”

“We put up a great fight, we have improved from the group stages, said ACS(BR) captain Josiah Williams (AC #2).

St. Andrew’s Secondary School will play Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) in the NSG ‘B’ Division final at the National Stadium on Monday, 6 May 2023 at 2.00pm.

The final will be live-streamed at the following link.

Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) finished 4th after going down 17-10 to Raffles Institution in the 3rd/4th placing match held on 29 April 2024.

 

Saint Andrew’s Secondary School v Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road)

Scoring by half
Half-time: 17-0
Full-time: 31-0

Scorers

Saint Andrew’s Secondary School

Liu Brendan Brian (#8) – 1 try
Lim Yih Shao Ashton (#9) – 1 try
Jareb Seow Yu Zhen (#12) – 1 try
Eldric The Zhi Xian (#27) – 1 try
Goh Kai En Travis (#10) – 1 try, 3 conversions

Saint Andrew’s Secondary School Roster

Muhammad Erhan bin Mohan (#17), Chen Sibin (#26), Poh De Wei Daryl (#3), Jedd Tng Jie (#1), Emmanuel Tong Ke Jun (#2), Liu Brendan Brian (#8), Ong Li Heng, Lloyd (Weng Liheng) (#16), Casper Keh Jin Hao (#20), Zac Chan Jun Yang (#24), Fyffe William Maxwell (#18), Kayven Lim Yu Zhe (#17), Muhammad Hazim bin Mohd Azhar (#19), Afiq bin Muhammad (#14), Eldric The Zhi Xian (#27), Gareth Koh (Xu Jianzun) (#22), Paquingan Clarence Dave Diez (#11), Ashton Tay Liqian (#13), Josh Lee Dong Jun (#18), Tan Kai Wen (#15), Timothy Tan Jia Yi (#5), Andika Yap Trisulo (#21), Damien Alec Chvojka (#4), Jake Kong Zit Caie (#6), Isaac Luke Choo (#23), Khow Jyun Zhen (#7), Lim Yih Shao Ashton (#9), Nathan Adnan Yu Zhe Amin (#28), Goh Kai En Travis (#10), Noah Loh Leya (#25), Jareb Seow Yu Zhen (#12)

Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) Roster

Josiah Zhi Yang Williams (#2), Ong Yiu Kiat (#3), Wong De Rui Jonathan (#1), Hafiz Arwyn Jones (#19), Nacova Ding Kai (Chen Kai) (#17), Ian Vilasis Lee Ern (#18), Kyle Ng Zhi Kai (#30), Gianluca Primo Speciale (#28), Ralph Gan (#13), Kaelan Wong Yan Siang (#26), Wong De Li Derrick (#14), Daniel Kwok (Guo Xueyi) (#12), Edrik Chen Jiehong (#8), Teng Le Qi, Denzel (#24), Lee Jaeyoon (#21), Evan John Rustrick (#10), Ian Ee Enxi (#11), Jamie Thomas Andersen (#5), Andre Ian Lim Ji In (#20), Ryan Ng Yi Kai (Huang Yikai) (#23), Teo Rui Feng (#9), Arya Evan Zaccheus (#6), Ezra Lye Ci Yuen (Li Siyuan) (#4), Keefe Loh Jun Qi (#25), Samuel Siang Yu (Shang Yu) (#7), Goh Yu Heng Joshua (#27), Elliot Cory Rantung (#16), Muhammad Danial Bharizun Bin Noordin (#29), Wan Ian Irfann Bin Wan Shamsury (#15), Nico Caviezel (#22))

 *** NOTE: Names and jersey numbers are based on official team sheets.

More photos next page. Please let us know if you recognise any of the players in the photos by leaving a comment, so we can edit the captions to include their names.