Kampung boys triumph over the city boys

Matchday 1

NTU 16 – 10 SMU

NTU: 2 penalties, 2 unconverted try
SMU: 1 penalty, 1 converted try

The boys from Boon Lay have earned a well deserved victory to kick off the quad unis on a high. A heavy downpour hours before the kickoff caused concern for a few but that certainly did not dampen their spirits. If anything the downpour can be looked upon as some kind of divine intervention from above; the boys are all too familiar with the wet weather having trained in the monsoon for the past three months.

Stay tuned for a detailed match report…

Last Call… As the day draws near

The fixtures for 2011’s Quad Uni have been finalized and the boys from Boon Lay will kick off the competition when they face the boys from the city in a forthnight on the 24th of February. The preperations are ongoing as the turnout for trainings have been encouraging.  The players are not only eager to fight for a place in the team but more importantly, they are learning to play together as a team. This may seem a cliche but a team of 15 novices playing for each other is always better than a group of 15 stars playing on their own. Of course, having 15 stars playing for each other is even better and the boys from boon lay do have their fair share of excellent, experienced players who are capable of leading the team. There are however a couple of these experienced key players missing presumably due to the hectic school schedule and the team really hope these players can squeeze in the time to attend the biweekly training sessions. Although we are barely 2 weeks away from the Quad Unis, it is still not too late for players to join the team and do their part, no matter how little or how big their contributions are.

Even before the axe comes down…

We mentioned a few weeks ago that gone are the days where we seem to be able to register an infinite amount of players as the king has put a limit to the number of players on this year’s team to 32. This is to encourage the players to fight for a place in the team and for the right to don the colours of NTU; though most will be crossing their fingers hoping it would be pink.

However, even before the axe comes down on the underperforming players, several players have already pulled out due to issues off the field. One such player is versatile forward Wei Kann who has pulled out to club commitments. When interviewed last week he cited training clashes as the main reason for his withdrawal. The NIE freshman who plays in the local league explain that his club training clashes with NTU training session thus he has to make the dreaded decision of putting club above varsity. He feels that it is unfair for him to commit to NTURugby knowing that he will not be able to fully commit to the team and even worst, deny another person who has trained hard a place in the squad. We at NTURugby respect this decision and hope that things will be better in the coming years. The No.8/prop/lock/flanker/hooker has 4 full years in front of him anyway so there will be plenty of chances for him to train with the team in the near future.

Another forward who has put himself out of contention is wrestler rugger Gabriel Yang. In a brief interview during his tennis class (it was so difficult for us to meet him that we had to sneak into his class for the interview), he said that he is unable to commit himself to the team and was quite reluctant to give a reason for his withdrawal, partly because he was trying to get his forehand stroke right. We hope that the prop turned flanker will be able to solve any issues off the field and join us sooner rather than later.

Losing players aside, at least the bright side is that our coach/advisor Jeff is back with us to share his invaluable experience and to… give advice to the team. He is giving the king and his vices a free reign at training stepping in when he deems necessary. Training sessions are more of a sharing session where he gives his point of view and discuss what’s best for the team with the pack leaders. Things are looking good on this front so far as we think that having an advisor present is still better than nothing but only time will tell if this is the best approach for NTURugby. Perhaps the best indication will come after the friendly this wednesday against ACJC at the NTU field. This time, the opponents will be much stronger than the SAS boys we had last time around and there is no doubt that the boon lay boys will have a physically tougher challenge this time around.

(Belated) New Year’s latest

They say new year resolutions don’t get past the first day of the year. Whoever said that was a genius. But oh well here we are better late than never.

Preperation for the new season has started and it is heartening to see players making their way down to the outskirts of the suburbs to train despite it being the holidays. Initially, we thought attendance would be bad and that we would not have enough to field a decent team but we were wrong. A check with our registrar Shaun “his fringe always covers his eye” Ang revealed that almost 50 players have been signed for this season’s round of the 4Unis so we expect tough but healthy competiotion for the 32 spots up for grabs.

To give the players an idea of their playing level, NTURugby played a friendly agaist the SAS “B” division boys on Friday. It was one of those games where losing would mean we are in shit up to our waist(although there is still time to improve), and winning would not necessarily mean that we were the best team in the world either. The king and his advisors were going to use this match to measure the players’ individual ability and how these same individuals work together as a team. From the game, there were positives as well as negatives which helps the monarchy of NTURugby decide its next course of action and at the same time believe that there is the light at the end of the tunnel. Credit to the SAS “B” boys who did well to match their much bigger and physical opponents. The boys may be smaller but they were certainly fitter and more organise making them worthy opponents of the Boon Lay Boys. At the end of the day, the scoreline did not matter as both teams left the field with valuable experience that will help them improve. For the Boon Lay Boys, the result meant that we were not in deep shit neither was there any indication that we were the best team in the world. Its now back to the outskirts of the suburbs for the Boys from Boon Lay before the next friendly which is tentatively scheduled for next Friday.

We’re BACK!!!

We’re BACK!! With the hectic end semester schedule now behind us, we have finally found the time to “resuscitate” this almost forgotten, relatively unknown blog of ours. The editors have been so busy with assignments, projects, exams, post-exam celebrations, not to forget year end holidays, working part time, celebrating X’mas, going for parties, preparing for countdown parties and what-nots that they neglected the blog in the process. What a load of bullshit you might think and we feel that way too therefore with the new year just round the corner, the editors of NTURugby news have made a resolution; that is to update this site at least once a week. We are not going to swear upon our lives or give a 30-days money back guarantee that we stick to our resolution. All we are going to do is to remind ourselves to keep updating the blog no matter how busy we are. It all comes down to one thing: Discipline. Discipline was one of the key areas the king addressed during an hour long conference yesterday. This was the first meeting after the exam break and there were still quite a significant number of players who were missing. Among the key players missing are Vice-captain Karnjote Singh who is in India for unknown reasons, new boy Marah Fahmy who has decided to trade the monsoon of Singapore with the winter of London and hooker cum flanker at heart Nicholas “Babyface” Koh who was apparently trying out a new kimchi recipe at home. It is not uncommon though for attendance to dwindle during the holidays as we have seen from previous years but what matters most is when we start our preparations next week. Attendance in training is essential for us to improve as a team and the king has decided to put his foot down by insisting that players produce documentary proof for any absence. This means that players will have to produce “MCs or Death Certificates”, quoted from the king himself, for any absence from training. Secretary Shawn Ang has been tasked to mark the players’ attendance during trainings and the king plans to use it as a criteria for team selection. This year’s squad will be limited to 32 as the king hopes to create competition for the places up for grabs. The question now is not about dropping underperforming players from the squad. It’s about having more than 32 players to compete for a slot in the squad though it is still early days and we will have to wait till the semester is in full swing before we can tell. Till then, have a great New Year’s Weekend and party all you want; for the players…just dun forget about our training session on Monday.

Republic Poly Tertiary 7s

The Boon Lay Boys have been given another chance to prove themselves at the Singapore Rugby Republic Polytechnic Tertiary Sevens Tournament 2010. Rumour has it that the players found the tournament quite a mouthful to utter and veteran player Rizman Maktar, whose appearance tomorrow will be his swan song as he leaves for greener pastures, is rumoured to have challenged his team mates to a wager. The challenge; to say the name of the tournament in the shortest time possible. Our unverified unreliable sources have reportedly spotted Rizman hiding in some corner of NIE chanting the phrase over and over again. However, these rumours could not be verified as the player was uncontactable up till blogtime. 

While the players were having trouble in articulating the name, the king is faced with a selection headache. However, it is a problem he’d rather have as he is forced to slash the list to the final 12. Of course, the easiest way is to stick to the NTU ‘A’ squad for SUniG but that would discredit the players of the B squad who did pretty well at SUniG. There is also the return of talismanic old bird Sidney Kumar who missed the SUniGs because of National team commitment.

After much deliberation, the king have finally decided, on the day before the tournament to announce the 12 players for the Singapore Rugby Republic Polytechnic Tertiary Sevens 2010. The chosen 12 are:

1. Joel Leong
2. Rizman Maktar
3. Nicholas Koh
4. Fadzil Wahed
5. Albert Tan
6. Sidney Kumar
7. Wei Jun Han
8. Dickson Goh
9. Karnjote Singh
10. Syed Hafiz
11. Chatura Wintanage
12. Mark Sim

The boys will kick off the tournament against hosts Republic Polytechnic at 10am tommorow and will compete against Singapore Institute of Management, Singapore Polytechnic and SUniGs Runners up Singapore Management University. After the disappointment at SUniGs, the boys shoulder the heavy responsibility of bringing home our first silverware of the season. Good Luck Boys!!! NTU!! S_ _ _ _!!

“Same Shit, Different Year”

 

With 2 representatives in 2 different semi-finals, NTU was the only team that had the probability of having both teams in the finals. That idea may be far-fetched, but at least it was mathematically possible. The thing is, rugby is neither about maths nor rolling dices. It is a combination of strength, skill, technique, tactics, teamwork, trust, believe, hardwork and the list goes on. Alas, it does not matter how many teams you have in the semi-finals but who makes it to the finals.

On paper, the first semi final had an epic written all over it as both sides had a fair amount of talent in the squad. However, games are not fought on paper as NTU A were beaten 24-0 by their opponents. The scoreline though did not do justice to our players efforts as we had our moments in the game. Our players are as good as the opponents if not better but as a unit, we could not match them in their gameplay.

In the second semi-final, our B team were outstanding in the first few minutes of the game camping in the opponent’s half as they piled the early pressure. The team got very close to scoring as they had a penalty 5 metres from the tryline but they just could not find a way past the SMU defence. Instead, it was SMU A who scored somewhat against the run of play as a turnover at a ruck inside their half and quick hands out wide released their speedy winger down the touchline for a try. From then on, there was no turning back as SMU scored a couple more tries to win the semi-final tie and meet NUS A at the finals.

At the end of the day, the silverware has once again eluded us despite the players giving in their all for the team. As ex-flyhalf Ren Han aptly puts it, “Same Shit, Different Year”

Both NTU squads makes it to SUniG 7s Semi-finals

 

Both the NTU teams have made it past the group stages and booked a place in the semi-finals. NTU A started the day well with a convincing 35 nil will over NUS B. Things did not go well for NTU A though as they lost the second game to SMU A 19-12. NTU A started the game well with an unconverted try but SMU capitalised on some mix up on the NTU wings to take a convincing 19-5 lead. NTU sorted out their play and came back strongly towards the end of the game missing out on 3 opportunities to level the game. The result means that NTU A is second in their group and will meet NUS A in a clash of the titans. The B team also started the competition well with a 15-0 win over SMU B. Next up for NTU B was NUS A who proved too strong for the boys as they went down by 5 tries without reply. All was not lost though as NTU B beat SIM 26-21 in their final group game to make it to the finals. NTU B will face off against SMU A in the other semi-final match.

D-2. Who’s in, Who’s not?

With the SUniG 7s just 2 days away, the final 24 will be officially announced at the end of tonight’s session by the king. The players will cling on to any glimmer of hope and make use of this final session to stake their claim of a spot in one of the SUniG squads. Although the king already has a rough idea of who’s in and who isn’t, he would want to give the players a final chance to prove their worth before finalising the final squad by the end of the session. For the players who are in, it means having 2 days to prepare themself mentally and get into the right frame of mind for Saturday morning. For those who miss out, it just means having to train even harder to break into the squad and so long they keep trying, it will be a matter of sooner rather than later before they find themselves in the squad.

As the players try to stake their claim tonight, there will be a player whose appearance at the SUniGs remains an uncertainty. In what seems to be a battle of club over country (or rather, varsity over country), Sidney Kumar is once again thrown into the limelight as he has to make a choice between the national 7s squad and NTURugby. Of course the choice seems obvious, but such is Sidney’s dedication to NTURugby that he is willing to bend over(we don’t mean it literally) and make it a win-win situation for all. We have caught whiff of news that Sidney may, for the love of NTURugby, delay his departure to Malaysia with the national 7s teams. It is rumoured that he may be at the SUniG 7s on Saturday before rushing off to join the national team in Malaysia for their 7s competition. If the whiff we caught were indeed true, then it signals good news for NTURugby as his influence, experience and speed can bring the team to a higher level. However, if that piece of rumour is as certain as Mr Xu ‘Power Thighs” Renhan’s availability for the SUniG 7s, then we’re sure the others in the team can step up to the plate and fill the gap.

SUniG 2010 Preperation Friendlies

As the SUniG 7s approaches, the boys from Boon Lay are starting to turn up and turn on the intensity. It is a stark contrast to the days of not so long ago when we had just enough for a game of 4-a-side touch and the entire team could fit into an MPV fairly comfortably and drive to the nearest coffeeshop for after-training dinners. Those days, training sessions can be quite a depressing routine for ex-captain Sidney Kumar who was so sad that he did not even have the appetite to eat after trainings opting to head straight home to seek solace in his humble abode instead. It was rumored that the management had to resort to evicting players out of their halls in a bid to boost the turn out during training. The move apparently managed to bring one player back and left another scrambling to defend himself. However, it is not known if such drastic measures were indeed taken as we understand that none of the players were forced out of their rooms when the semester began last week. This lack of numbers is not uncommon though as attendance is known to take a dip during the holidays as the players go on trips or spend time catching up on things which they could not do during the semester; like sleeping through the day. All those woes have now become water under the bridge as the turnout for yesterday’s series of 7s friendly with Ngee Ann Polytechnic and the Singapore Recreation Club was overwhelming and heartening. In fact, the attendance was so overwhelming that we could easily form 3 different squads and special projects manager Dave Singh, who is out with a very suspicious finger injury, had to make himself useful by doubling up as an assistant coach for the night.

 

 

 

Dave Singh (in black) making himself useful during the friendlies

 Although it was a mixture of the old and the new, every single player who stepped onto the field gave their all and kept on going. In friendly games, the scoreline often takes a back seat; nobody kept record of the scores. It is meant to be a yardstick for the team to measure their ability and improve themselves to bring the team to the next level. There were of course positives and negatives from the game. One positive is that the team is beginning to find its gameplay structure and the players managed to understand each other despite it being only the second week of the semester. While the positives helped boost morale and confidence, the negatives helped the management identify the team’s weaknesses and areas where we could improve. NTURugby would like to thank Ngee Ann Rugby and SRC for attending the friendly games yesterday. We really appreciate the teams making the trip to one of the most obscure place in Singapore and we hope the games were of great help to them as much as it has helped us improve.

 

  

  

 

Prior to the game, the king had contemplated sending only one team to the SUniG 7s as he was worried by the lack of players in the squad. The king was not ready to send in a team to merely make up the numbers in the tournament but yesterday’s friendly had convinced the king that there is sufficient depth in the team to provide two squads for the SUniG 7s. To give every player the motivation to train even harder, the king has left all 24 places up for grabs giving every single player the chance to stake his claim in the squad. It is believed that every player whether old or new will make use of the coming sessions to make it into one of the two SUniG squads.

 

  

 

The 2010 Team

 With the preparations for SUniG in full swing, it is no wonder that Sidney Kumar was all smiles after the friendly as the depressed days seem to be a thing of the past.

 

 

 

Depressed days a thing of the past for Sidney

Getting the cheer rite... the 2nd time