RUGBY
National A Division
Raffles Junior College vs Anglo-Chinese Junior College
Wednesday, 9 May 2007 at Raffles Junior College
Story and pictures by Red Sports reader Mr Wee Ban Bee, an ACS old boy. Thanks, Mr Wee!
Raffles Junior College (RJC) beat Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) 7-3 in a hard fought game this afternoon to set up a semi-final clash with St Andrew’s Junior College. ACJC will now have to meet ACS(Ind) in the other semi-final, a scenario both Anglo-Chinese schools did not want.
An RJ player is hauled down by JD of ACJC. © Wee Ban Bee
The match started almost an hour late at 5.25 pm due to rain and possible lightning.
RJC scored the first and only try about 3 minutes after kick off. According to observers, it should not have been given as it was a forward pass that missed the referee’s attention. A clearance by ACJC was blocked by RJ and with the bouncing ball, RJ was able to go ahead and get a try even though it was supposedly a forward pass. RJC’s conversion was successful to make the score 7 – 0 to RJC.
AC and RJ players engaged in a ruck.© Wee Ban Bee
After that most of the game was played in RJ’s half. A penalty was given to ACJC and Mandeep Singh managed to convert to give AC their 3 points.
An AC player tries to take down Nazirul of RJ. © Wee Ban Bee
During the second half, RJ were awarded a penalty right in front of the goal post about 30m out. The kick went way left and missed the posts altogether.
Mandeep Singh of ACJC plays a kicking game. © Wee Ban Bee
ACJC pressed on with their attack and managed what appeared to be a try right under the goal posts but this was not seen by the referee as the boys were piled up over each other. Refereeing was fair to both sides. ACJC will thus meet ACS(I) at Old PA next Wednesday 16 May at 3.15pm with RJC meeting SAJC at 4.30pm.
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed are the writer’s own. You don’t agree with it? Write your own. We’ll post it. And I mean WRITE, not mouth off. Writing is for adults, mouthing off is for juveniles.
An RJ player in full flight. © Wee Ban Bee
Yiming of RJ player runs into an AC tackle. © Wee Ban Bee
Shahir of ACJC is stopped in his tracks by Zhehan of RJ. © Wee Ban Bee
A maul forms around an RJ player. © Wee Ban Bee
An ACJC player bulldozes his way through the RJ line. © Wee Ban Bee
Editor’s comment: Sounds like there were some controversial calls, huh? If you were there too, please feel free to share your comments about the game. If you recongise yourself or your team mates in the pictures, let us know names and we’ll update the captions. Thanks.
The passion for rugby is, without doubt, very much alive in Singapore. A pity that IRB chooses not to host the Sevens circuit here due to lack of numbers. But keep this fire alive and this community will grow, then maybe, someday,..just someday the international rugby body can consider hosting some exhibition matches with the likes of the ALL-BLACKS, WALLABIES etc here.
At the end of the day, we still have to wait for the finals and there can only be one.
Chill guys, go out and have a beer! That is what rugby is all about!
i agree with anderson. rugby has never been talked about so much in singapore as far as i can remember.
i look at the other forums (ie: on red sports) and they cant match the passions of the rugby fans (of couse minus the personal slandering… which i think is funny)
so ‘random thinking person’ says rjc are poaching ac player? i think someone on the other post said the same thing (re: SA/ACSi)… i guess now we know how commited ac players are huh?
so much for being the champions… 🙂
I’m proud of Singapore rugby and I’m proud of this website. This is the only way rugby will grow as a sport in such a small little city/country. The coverage given, albeit opinionated, has given many rugby alums the opportunity to re-live the inter-school rugby spirit.
I hope redsports.sg will step it up a notch and perhaps post video clips of crucial playoff games on youtube so viewers can watch it firsthand.
In case you all are not aware, I was chided by my rugby playing son who said my report was bias. He said that I should have mentioned certain facts of how the game progressed which I did not. Only then can I say it was an unbias report. But it was too technical from my point of view. And Neutral was right, I was never a rugby player and only reported what I saw from a lay person point of view.
However, all the comments make interesting reading. Keep it up so long as it is not rude or uncalled for. we are all entitled to our own comments.
oh well its wasted that i didnt get to play in the game even though i could have gone to both schools. i think it was a hard fought game and what happens on the field should stay on the field.i mean cmon,ruggers are renowned for being a different class of sportsmen.i think everyone out there should just be cool about what happened at the match.the ref is an uncontrollable just like the weather and the pitch.good luck to all teams in their upcoming matches. cheers
To RJ & RJC or should it be RJ or RJC…
Now I’m getting confused…
I answered to RJ’s point and RJC gives me a reply…
So are you one and the same player/person?
RJ never mentioned about the whistle blowing before the ball was grounded?
So….if you’re the one and same guy, please don’t change your facts.
If you’re not, then I’ll take it as just another point of view…you’re entitled to it.
Gn guys…
rj?lols wic num?aha b
rj its midnight i have bio spa tomorrow.bye fellow keyboard jockeys
So you guys still discussing?
It’s great to see the opinions from the players too.
And by the way, the guy who goes by the nickname “random thinking person” is the same person who wrote under the nickname “reply”.
Please, try and stick to one nickname. Then everybody knows who said what.
Have fun …
lol u repeat repeat.i know i know n rugby rugby.lmaolmao.ahaha yea chills u frm wic team one?no SA here ah?
wow this is some intensio tag wars man i played in that game and i dont think its as scary as this lol i was rather sad im not in the mr wees pic =( haha anyway chill la guys no ones eliminated yet chill guys haha im happy so many people still cared for rugby thats what i lived for most part of my life but then i know i know we will be no 1.
lols btw rjc dint lost to uwc in d arena. 🙂
so. i’ve played in the game, and i’m here to address the point on the supposedly disallowed try.
the try in question wud be daryl’s attempted pick and go from a 5m ruck.
for as far as my failin memory can recall, his pick and go was met with a tackle from our defense which quickly formed into a maul, before the maul collapsed with the ball past the try line. HOWEVER, the whistle was blown RIGHT BEFORE the maul collapsed, bringin the ball into the try area.Seeing how many videographers from both ac schools were there, a quick and simple check with any of them can easily verify. So yes, there is no point pushing and shoving ur way into the try area when play has been stopped. Before any smartypants want to dispute this, PLEASE, watch the video first. and no, ur memory doesnt count.
secondly. with reference to reply’s comments,
thaddaeus was not a first teamer. not for the B Div finals anyways.
and to ‘a random thinking person’ claim “might be sent to some sort of international rugby board for investigation into the ref” that borders on sheer stupidity and nothing less than ridiculous. do you honestly believe, or expect others to believe, that a school group stage match in a small island in the middle of the ocean would be of the slightest concern to the INTERNATIONAL rugby board? i’d advice u reconsider your ludicrous claim.
and lastly, ALL these crossfire between member of both schools are plain stupid.
the match is over. even if either side manages to outbitch the other in this online forum, the score isnt gonna change. the fixture isnt gonna change. suck it up, grow up and stop bitching.
and to be fair, both sides played exceedingly well with performances worthy of the finals. after the match it was hard not to congratulate them as well. it was a close match, and it was a good match. period. i dun think anyone has any right to put anyone down, least of all random spectators at the stands.
cheers
rugby fan !
dun debate here,…c’mon rj guys! lost to UWC in the debate and gotta take it out on redsports with the AC guys. i c u guys really love to debate,…geez.
TO random thinking person
pls do not make such nonsensical statements abt half the Rj first team being from AC. Either yr really stupid (think 15/2 = 4), or you just simply want to sway the neutrals to yr side and take the blame off yr own ACJC players. furthermore, the so-called players from AC are now fuly fledged rafflesian’s with their only tie to AC being an alumnus. 15 awesome rafflesians won the game out there yesterday. Fullstop.
i didn’t mean that all of them were not if first team sorry if i misled fellow readers. yet again does that mean HALF the team were from ac tts a pretty sweeping statement to me speaking abt getting ‘facts’ right?
To RJ
I’m not doubting that you played in that game but i feel i need to rebut your comment “As for the people who still insist that the disallowed acjc “try" was a try, you werent on hand to see it happen right in front of you” – well….I was there and it happened right in front of me (and I wasn’t playing in the game)! It was clearly a try.
But I respect your views and your right to comment on that incident….just allow my honest rebuttal.
And if I had been the only one who spotted it, I would have given the ref the benefit of the doubt and not highlighted it here in this public forum. It was stated as a fact. Just to repeat what I said – the ref wasn’t biased. He just missed this critical moment.
This does not take any credit away from you and the RJC team.
Please accept my congratulations! And both sets of players should be proud of the way the game was played that day!
fine, if you say there were 3 former ac players in the 1st team, shaun (11), thaddaeus (6), Jed (3/1) were first team players back in their secondary school days. so quote back to you “pls get your facts right”
random thinking person, it is not true that half the rjc first team are from ac. get your facts right before putting up such a controversial comment please.
and i suppose that the fact that the past 2 captains were from ac shows that rjc is a very open school who is willing to embrace anyone for who they are, regardless of their background.
i do not want this comment to stir up any more flames, this is just in reply to random thinking person. cheers.
to random thinking: half the team was from ac? no offense but pls get your facts right there are 3 ac players in the rj 1st team and most were not from the first team back in their ac days lets say its good grooming of players on rj’s part and great undiscovered potential on those ex-ac boys. rj’s former year’s capt was an ri boy while their previous year’s capt was from ac as he rose to the challenge of a new team and kudos to him. but in every jc doesn’t each school draw in players of talent from various sec schools for the better of their team. those jc’s get better whereas the jc which is unable to even draw their own players to continue lose out so who’s fault is it? for me its fair and square