Rugby U-16s: Singapore beat Hong Kong 6-0

By REDintern Stefanus Ian. Photos by Jonathan Ng and Les Tan/Red Sports

Saint Andrew’s Junior School, Tuesday, April 19, 2011 — The Singapore Under-16s edged out the Hong Kong Rugby Union U-16s 6-0 with two penalty kicks midway through the second half after Hong Kong had missed three of their own in the first. This was the first time in 11 years that the Singapore U-16s have beaten the Hong Kong U-16s.

The Singapore U-14s lost to their U-14 Hong Kong counterparts 5-33 earlier in the evening.

Singapore, clad in an unfamiliar white and blue, started brightly, almost scoring a try in the first nine minutes after a scrum near Hong Kong’s try line. However, Singapore were unable to capitalize as Hong Kong managed to force a turnover and punt the ball to safety.

After 20 minutes of play, Hong Kong were presented with a chance to grab the lead with a penalty kick from the right. However, the ball hit the right goal post, much to the relief of the Singapore supporters watching.

Barely five minutes later, they again failed to score the first points of the game, missing another penalty kick, the ball narrowly sailing wide of the right hand goalpost despite the central position of the kick.

Despite losing their #9 in the 17th minute to the sin bin, Hong Kong dominated, pinning Singapore in their half for long spells. Hong Kong launched wave after wave of attack but Singapore’s stubborn defence held their resistance.

Singapore nearly yielded a try in the last minute of the first half when Hong Kong nearly burst through following a speedy display by their backs. The half time whistle certainly came as a welcome relief for Singapore.

Hong Kong came out in the second half eager to continue their dominance but it was Singapore that struck first. In the 34th minute, Naresh (Singapore #15) scored a 30m penalty kick to put the home side ahead 3-0.

Naresh then showed his defensive abilities as well when he got his teammates out of trouble following a fumble, punting the ball away to safety as the Hong Kong players rushed in to close him down.

Seven minutes later he capped a good performance with another successful penalty kick, this time from the left to make it two out of two for the St Andrew’s Secondary B Division captain.

The second half performance was all the more remarkable because Singapore had David Daniel sent to the sin bin for a yellow card.

When asked what gave Singapore the advantage against their bigger sized opponents, Naresh said: “Being relaxed and composed is the key for me, especially in scoring the penalty kicks, and it is not always about size.”

Although the Singapore U-16s played together for the first time just 20 hours prior to the game, the team looked sharp and ready to play. It did not hurt that the boys had just finished the national schools B Division Championship and therefore still in physical shape.

The Singapore coach, Harry Orgee, was understandably proud of his team’s performance.

“I’m really proud of the boys, they worked really hard on the pitch for each other and were defensively outstanding against the opponents,” said Orgee.

Bill Mason, the head coach of the Hong Kong squad, felt the game could have gone either way.

“It was an evenly matched game and the difference between the two teams is that we simply did not convert our kicks,” said Mason.

The Hong Kong teams have been in Singapore for five days and will go on to Malaysia to play more friendlies as part of their annual training programme.

Singapore Squad
Harvey Aldrin (Captain, ACSI), David Daniel (St Andrew’s), Nigel Ian Rankin (St Andrew’s), Geoffrey Lee (ACSI), Kelvin Yau (St Andrew’s), Norman Ng (ACSI), Samuel Koh (St Andrew’s), Lo Eu Wen (ACSI), Barry Ann Jie Xun (ACSI), Tay Wei Shane (St Andrew’s), Gurveer Singh (St Andrew’s), Muhammad Syafiq (St Andrew’s), Adriel Toh (St Andrew’s), Sebastian Seow (ACSI), Charlie Hyde (Tanglin Trust School/Centaurs), Alex Lombardi (Lycee Francais School/ Centaurs), Naresh Kunasegaran (St Andrew’s), Samuel Becker (ACSI), Sean Chang (St Andrew’s),
Rauf Raihan (Greenridge Secondary), Abdul Rauf (St Andrew’s), Panuvich Panpattanasil (ACSI), Dominic Ting (ACSI), Hilman Iskandar Wong (ACSI), Umar Muhd Noor (St Joseph’s Institution), Samuel Teo (ACSI)

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