Story and pictures by Leslie Tan

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Walker of NTU drags five SMU players over the try line but the referee did not give the try. (Photo © Leslie Tan/Red Sports)

ACJC Field, Saturday, February 16, 2008 – The Singapore Management University (SMU) beat the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) 27-10 to win their second game of the Tri-Universities Rugby Championship and set up mouth-watering clash this Saturday against the unbeaten National University of Singapore (NUS).

SMU and NUS share the lead at the top of the table with 7 points each but unbeaten NUS (2-wins-0-losses) have a game in hand over SMU who have a 2-1 record, their sole loss coming against NUS in a 7-8 reverse. When it became clear over the course of the game that SMU would walk off the winners, it then became a question of whether SMU could gain the extra point for winning by four tries or more.

SMU showed their intent as early as the 2nd minute when a drop-kick attempt by Amos Siow (#10) hit the right upright and bounced out. By the 4th minute, SMU were in the lead when Daniel Marc Chow (#8) went over for a try which Siow converted for a 7-0 lead.

From the restart, it was all NTU pressure resulting in a penalty attempt in the 7th minute by NTU’s Aidill (#23) that fell short. By the 18th minute, prolonged NTU pressure paid off when Aminurashid (#14) of NTU went over for a try on the right flank after a SMU passing mistake. Aidill missed the conversion and the score remained 7-5 in favour of SMU.

Then it was the turn of NTU to make a handling mistake that allowed SMU to gain significant territory, advancing inside the NTU 22m line. From a scrum, Sherman Yeo (#1) of SMU went over for a try that was successfully converted for a 14-5 SMU lead in the 22nd minute.

SMU continued to put on the pressure but a drive fell short right at the NTU tryline. A promising NTU attack towards the end of the first half proved likewise fruitless and the teams walked off with SMU in the lead and contemplating their chances for a four-try victory and the precious bonus point.

Amos Siow of SMU missed his first penalty attempt early in the second half but made up for it with a successful one in the 9th minute to make it a 17-5 lead for his team. Another successful penalty at the 14th minute by Amos made it 20-5 for SMU but they were coming up short on try attempts. SMU finally got one more try in the 31st minute through Amos after good work by his teammates opened up a hole for him down the right side for him to run all the way for a dive under the goal posts. Amos promptly got up and converted for a 27-5 lead.

However, hopes of a four-try victory went up in smoke when Daniel Huang (#17) of NTU scored a try in the 35th minute after his team breached the SMU defense. His teammate Daniel Thiam (#13) missed the conversion and the game ended with SMU winning 27-10.

With this victory, SMU are now second in the table even though they are tied on 7 points with NUS, who have a superior points difference. This leaves SMU needing to win their final game against NUS this Saturday to give them any hope of winning the Tri-Universities Championship.

For more details on fixtures, tables and scorers, please visit the Fixtures+Results page.

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Amos Siow of SMU converts. (Photo © Leslie Tan/Red Sports)
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Chong Wei Nurn of SMU offloads the ball before he gets tackled. (Photo © Leslie Tan/Red Sports)
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Alex Chew of SMU passes off the ball before he is hauled down by an NTU player while Daniel Thiam of NTU (left) looks on. (Photo © Leslie Tan/Red Sports)
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Daniel Thiam looks like he’s getting his face scratched while he looks for a gap in the SMU defence. (Photo © Leslie Tan/Red Sports)
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Sidney Kumar of NTU tries to fight off the attention of Alex Ong of SMU. (Photo © Leslie Tan/Red Sports)
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Daniel Huang of NTU on his way to a successful try while Lorenzo Escano Lim of SMU tries to stop him. (Photo © Leslie Tan/Red Sports)

If you know the names of the players, please feel free to leave them in the comments section and we’ll update the captions. Thanks.

For more pictures from the game, please visit the gallery.