Story contributed by reader Roving Rugby Reporter

Temasek Polytechnic, Thursday, July 17, 2008 – Temasek Polytechnic (TP) beat the Combined Institute Of Technical Education 27-20 in the opening game of the 2008/09 Polytechnic-Institute of Technical Education (POL-ITE) Rugby Championship.

A determined ITE side gave their all but struggled against a TP team with a strong pack and good finishers in their backline. The ITE backline at times too showed that they could trouble the opposition’s defence.

With both teams knowing that a first win would provide a good start in their their quest for the championship, it was ITE who put the first points on the board with a penalty kick by their winger from right in front of the posts after some TP indiscipline at the breakdown. But TP regained their composure and went on to score two unanswered tries. TP scored their first through Imran (#6) off a maul from a line-out while their #15 converted one and missed the other. IITE #6 Asat was also sin-binned by the referee for a high tackle on the TP #9 Jansen. The yellow card came as no suprise, as the ITE players committed some foul play before that and got several warnings.

TP walked off at the half-time break leading 12-3.

At the start of the second half, ITE shocked TP by scoring a try less than five minutes into the second half to make it 10-12. This duly woke TP up and they fought back to score another try through Aizat (#14) for his second try of the match. His teammate Sam (#15) missed the conversion and the score remained at 17-10.

ITE came back strongly, keeping TP pinned in their own half for a long period of time. This pressure finally broke the TP defence and turned into points through the ITE forwards’ pick-and-go tactics. Again, ITE had narrowed the gap and it was now 15-17.

TP replied again, this time scoring through their winger Mannan (#11) who got his first try of the tournament and TP’s fourth try of the match to earn them a bonus point. From the resulting conversion at the side, everyone on the stands and even the TP players themselves thought that Terence (#13), who took over the kicking duties from Sam (#15), had nailed the extremely difficult conversion. However, it was not to be as the conversion fell a few centimetres short of the under-side of the post to the dismay of the crowd. The score stood at 22-15.

ITE once again responded, scoring a try through Azzeri (#10), his second of the match. He missed his resulting conversion and ITE trailed 20-22.

TP had the last say though, as they scored once again after some desperate ITE defending gave away a penalty right in front of their posts. TP decided against taking the 3 points and Terence (#13) took a quick tap and passed it to teammate Gaspar (#2) who then offloaded to Ivan (#7) to score their fifth try. From the resulting sideline conversion attempt, Terence failed to extend their lead but TP had done enough to win the game 27-20.

There were some positives for ITE though as they earned a crucial bonus point after not losing by more than seven points.