Story by Noor Farhan/Red Sports. Pictures by Chua Yueda/Red Sports

A Japanese Samurai player (black) tries to get past the opponent’s defence. (Photo 1 © Chua Yueda/Red Sports)

Padang, Saturday, November 6, 2010 — Two local rugby clubs — Singapore Cricket Club and Singapore Barbarians — came up against respected club teams Horowhenua-Kapiti and Ponsonby, both of New Zealand, as well as Malaysia’s Cobras and Negeri Sembilan Wanderers in the Singapore Cricket Club (SCC) Rugby 7s tournament.

The Singapore Barbarians rugby team started the afternoon’s proceedings for Pool B going down 33-0 to Ponsonby despite a valiant battle by the Barbarians under the balmy weather.

The Barbarians however, managed to salvage their day by performing admirably to beat Australia’s Casuarina Cougars.

Capitalising on a misplaced pass by the Cougar’s #14 in the earlier stages, the Barbarians then strung together a fine passing move that culminated into their #1’s lightning break down the left to score for his team.

Despite the Cougars fighting back and eventually scoring a try in the second half, the Barbarians kept their composure to win their last match of the day 12-5.

The Singapore Cricket Club rugby team started their Pool C match in similar fashion, losing 19-0 to Malaysia’s Cobras despite playing well.

However, they could not manage to emulate the Barbarians’ earlier victory, drawing 12-12 draw with Australia’s Southern Lions despite arguably having the better plays.

“I would say we started off pretty well, but we made really crucial errors that cost us the game,” lamented SCC Rugby’s veteran Hairul.

“We should have won the last game and I think the referee made some harsh calls, but (rugby) Sevens is like that,” echoed teammate Jonathan Lee.

“I think we deserved to win, but in Sevens you will get punished very quickly for making such mistakes in the game,” said Jonathan, who is a Business student at SIM.

Singapore Cricket Club Lineup:

Matt Head (#2), Alex Chew (#7), Jonathan Lee (#5), Derek Chan (#15), Frank Schaller (#6), Adam Knight (#11), Jonathan Pettermerides (#1), Kevin Loo (#10), Simon Etheridge (#4), Evan Kenworthy (#13), Hairul Naim (#11), Peter McFelly (#12)

Singapore Barbarians Lineup:

Marc Thompson (#1), Joe Coady (#2), Toby Lenn (#3), Gaspar Tan (#4), Dave Kell (#5), Roy Springall (#6), Oliver Pointon (#7), Dave Fitzgerald (#8), Jon Cloak (#9), Dan Mourad (#10), Christian Corrigan (#11), Luke McCabe (#12)

Other Results (Pool Round of the 63rd SCC International Rugby 7s)

Pool A
Penguins 31 Cottesloe 0
Borneo Eagles 47 Almaty RFC 0
Penguins 40 Almaty RFC 5
Borneo Eagles 21 Cottesloe 19
Cottesloe 31 Almaty RFC 7
Penguins 29 Borneo Eagles 0

Pool B
Ponsonby 31 Casuarina Cougars 0
Negeri Sembilan Wanderers 38 Singapore Barbarians 0
Ponsonby 33 Singapore Barbarians 0
Negeri Sembilan Wanderers 28 Casuarina Cougars 7
Casuarina Cougars 5 Singapore Barbarians 12
Ponsonby 43 Negeri Sembilan Wanderers 7

Pool C
Horowhenua-Kapiti 15 Singapore Cricket Club 0
Cobra 31 Southern Lions 0
Horowhenua-Kapiti vs Southern Lions 0
Cobra 19 Singapore Cricket Club 0
Singapore Cricket Club 12 Southern Lions 12
Horowhenhua-Kapiti 27 Cobra 19

Pool D
Japan Samurais 17 NT Mosquitoes 12
Sunnybank 29 Tamariva RFC 5
Japan Samurais 14 Tamariva RFC 0
Sunnybank 22 NT Mosquitoes 7
NT Mosquitoes 33 Tamariva RFC 0
Japan Samurais 24 Sunnybank 19

Pool E
Davetalevu 19 lmyra
Hong Kong Dragons 38 The Flying Kukris 0
Hong Kong Dragons 17 Palmyra 24
Palmyra 47 The Flying Kukris 0
Davetalevu 33 Hong Kong Dragons 0

Pool F
SA Vipers 47 SLRFU 7 14
Impala 26 East Arnhem Rugby 7
Impala 21 SLRFU 7 19
SLRFU 7 5 East Arnhem Rugby 15
SA Vipers 20 Impala 0

Players from both sides tries to contest for an air ball. (Photo 2 © Chua Yueda/Red Sports)

A Davetalevu player (black) runs his way past the Kukris defence. The pace of Davetalevu’s attack was too much to handle for Kukris who went down 60-0. (Photo 3 © Chua Yueda/Red Sports)

A HK Dragons (black and red) player gets tackled by a Palmyra defender. Palmyra won 24-17. (Photo 4 © Chua Yueda/Red Sports)

Two HK Dragons defenders try to bring down a Palmyra player. (Photo 5 © Chua Yueda/Red Sports)

A Cottesloe player scores a try for his team in their 7-0 defeat of Almaty RFC. (Photo 6 © Chua Yueda/Red Sports)

An Almaty RFC player tries to bring down a Cottesloe opponent. (Photo 7 © Chua Yueda/Red Sports)

An SCC player (yellow and black) tries to slide past a Southern Lions defender. (Photo 8 © Chua Yueda/Red Sports)

A Southern Lions player earns a try again SCC. The try was succesfully converted and the game ended 12-12. (Photo 9 © Chua Yueda/Red Sports)