SP beat TP to retain POL-ITE rugby championship title

RUGBY

POL-ITE Rugby Championship 2007/08

Story by Leslie Tan. Pictures by Lai Jun Wei. © Red Sports

Temasek Polytechnic, Saturday, January 12, 2007 – Defending champions Singapore Polytechnic (SP) beat Temasek Polytechnic (TP) 27-3 to retain their POL-ITE championship title.

Gaspar Tan of TP (in red) passes out to his team mate. (Photo © Lai Jun Wei)

You could cut the tension in the air with a knife as these two rival schools took to the pitch. Within seven minutes, tensions boiled over quickly when Jo Feliano of TP was sent flying onto the track side by a strong tackle. His teammate, national player Gaspar Tan reacted the strongest with some shoving before his teammates pulled him away.

TP wins the line-out. (Photo © Lai Jun Wei)

The game got bogged down with neither side getting any breakthroughs but in the 17th minute, TP raised the excitement level when they won a line-out 10m from the try line. However, the promising attack broke down when Samuel Lau dropped a pass. TP again gave the game the next highlight when national player Harresh Krishnan broke through before passing off to teammate #28. The attack fizzled out when he was pulled down 5m from the try line.

SP try to force their way through while Harresh Krishnan (with head bandage) of TP defends. (Photo © Lai Jun Wei)

Then in the 27th minute, tensions boiled over again when TP’s Gaspar Tan went charging in and tackled an SP player before he could even restart play, leading to another round of shoving, pushing and name-calling. All that became an unnecessary distraction to TP as the subsequent line-out was won by SP, leading to a try by Sanjay Pandey when he dived through a wall of players after getting the ball from a ruck. Rex Wang missed the conversion but SP had drawn first blood to lead 5-0.

Sanjay Pandey of SP goes over for a try. (Photo © Lai Jun Wei)

TP came fight backing in the 33rd minute with a line-out just inside the 22 which was caught by their #5 who dished it off to Harresh. The attack went nowhere but a subsequent penalty allowed Aizat to put three points on the board when he converted from 10m out to cut the deficit to 3-5.

Gaspar Tan (2nd from right) of TP and his teammate try to stop national player Hadizan Jamaan of SP from breaking through with the ball. (Photo © Lai Jun Wei)

When the second half resumed, SP made the first serious incursion into TP territory in the 4th minute when, from a line-out, Ashraf ran 30m unhindered before getting pulled down 5m from the try line. Opting to kick, Rex Wang put another three points up for an overall 8-3 SP lead.

TP (in red) and SP engage in a scrum. (Photo © Lai Jun Wei)

TP kicked themselves into a good position in the 8th minute, winning a line-out at the SP 22 but the attack again fizzled out when they couldn’t keep possession of the ball.

In the 12th minute, SP’s Joe Seng, showing good handling of the ball throughout the game, received the ball in his half and ran right through the TP defence to the 22. A subsequent scrum 4m from the try line saw SP’s Sanjay almost cross over the try line but he was stopped and the ball fell from his grasp. His teammate Ajay Pandey picked the dropped ball up and flew over for the try, which was converted for a 19-3 lead.

TP’s next serious foray was in the 20th minute when they managed to pass the ball across the length of the field with a move started by Madu. However, the move broke down again when Samuel Lau dropped the passed ball.

“I’ve got it!” Joe Seng of SP showed a good pair of hands throughout the game. (Photo © Lai Jun Wei)

Team discipline then fell apart int he 24th minute when an SP player seemed to throw the first punch leading to a retaliatory punch by a TP player. Then players from both teams got involved in a chaotic scrum, with some teammates playing peacemaker as they tried to pull their fiery teammates away from the middle of the fray. When things calmed down, the referee identified SP’s Ajay and TP’s Jeremy Chan as the main culprits for starting off the mess and sent both off the field.

The game degenerated into a fist fight at one point. (Photo © Lai Jun Wei)

When the rugby resumed, it was TP, the 2006 POL-ITE champions, that had the first look-in in the 26th minute with strong pressure near the SP try line. Gaspar Tan had the best look at a try but he could not breakthrough against a determined SP back line which finally cleared upfield to relieve the pressure.

Sanjay Pandey of SP makes a huge dash upfield with the ball. (Photo © Lai Jun Wei)

Having shown their defensive mettle by taking the sting out of the TP attack, SP then turned on their offensive power in style in the 32nd minute when Fahmy took the ball deep inside his half and went on an 80m run to the try line, leaving the final TP player floundering with a drop of the shoulder. With the conversion by Rex Wang, SP finally finished off the game to win 27-3 to retain the POL-ITE championship title.

Ben Chan (left) and Jeremy Chan of TP walk off disconsolate as SP celebrate in the background. (Photo © Lai Jun Wei)

“Awesome!” said Hadizan,captain of the SP team after the game. “Most of the players are in their third and final year and our exams are just one week later. This is my second title in the three years I’ve been in SP. The TP forwards are good. We knew that they could kick, drive and score, like they did against the other team and so we trained for that. We didn’t rush and we were able to contain them.”

“We knew they were the team to beat,” said Baldwin Ng, captain of the TP team. “Our tactic was to drive and maul, drive and maul. Every chance we got, we swung it out to our forwards because the SP backs are good. We just could not finish it off.”

Singapore Polytechnic’s championship winning team. (Photo © Lai Jun Wei)

More pictures in the gallery.

Editor's note: If you recognise yourself or your teammates, or if we've got the names wrong, let us know and we'll update the captions. Thanks.