By Lee Hwee Cheng
Highlights in Episode 14 of RedSportsTV.
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Clash of the titans, literally. (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Home Team Academy, Wednesday, May 23, 2007 – In a rather secluded corner off Old Chua Chu Kang Road, on a pitch set against a picturesque bright blue sky and a nice cool breeze, moods around the new Home Team Academy stadium were at an all-time high as the usual Raffles and Anglo-Chinese camps fought it out yet again – both on the pitch and at the gallery.
But it was the Rafflesians who culminated the highly-anticipated affair with a prideful rendition of their school song, when the boys in green-black-white pipped Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) for the crown 13-10 with a penalty kick in sudden-death extra time.
It was all defense, scrummages and penalties in the game and any attempt by the backs at a breakaway from the defense line would quickly be foiled by a tackle. In fact, it was ACS(I) who scored the first points of the game when they were awarded a penalty kick early in the first half.
The score remained for most of the half at 0-3 as both sides struggled to keep ball possession and launch any possible attack. A bad violation from the RJC camp resulted in another penalty awarded to the boys in yellow-blue stripes, but this time, the kick failed to clear the posts.
ACS(I) had a close stab at a try when they won the ball in a line-out near the try line and charged ahead. But the Raffles defense put out all the stops and held their line. The try attempt was foiled, and in a matter of minutes, the attack had quickly swung the other way.
In the final minutes of the first half, RJC’s Shaun Yam (no.11) received a pass in the midfield, faked a pass and then with a quick change of direction, sprung forward instead and broke through the ACS(I) line. He skipped a few defenders before he was taken down – but not before passing the ball to Stuart Ho (no.13) who finished the play with a try. The conversion was not made, however, and at the end of the first half, RJC were leading 5-3.
Barely two minutes into the second half, ACS(I) twisted the situation around when they overpowered RJC’s scrum to score a try. They went on to complete the conversion and the ACS(I) camp at the gallery broke into a frenzy of cheers as ACS(I) now led by five points at 10-5.
From then on, it was all RJC on the offense. They missed another penalty kick and almost got through when a breakaway was foiled just before the try line. With adrenaline all pumped up, it was only a matter of time that RJC finally scored their next try. Missing the conversion kick again, RJC managed to level the game 10-10.
In the last few minutes of the game, both sides were awarded yet another penalty each, both of which failed to clear the posts. And at full-time, the score remained level at 10-10.
With10 minutes of sudden-death extra time, it was RJC who dominated right from the start and it was not long before another penalty was awarded to the Rafflesians. Third-time lucky, the Rafflesians finally scored on a penalty as Ong Zhe Han (no.12) sent the ball flying between the posts.
It was at this moment that the Rafflesians broke out into a frenzy, and the pitch became a sea of greens, blacks and whites as RJC ended the final with a 13-10 win.
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Ian Gan of ACS(I) tries to break free from the defense but RJC’s Kevin Neo pulls him back. (Photo 2 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
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"You’re not getting past me, dude," says ACS(I)’s Khairulanwar (14) to RJC’s Shaun Yam (11). (Photo 3 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
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Shane Gan of ACS(I) makes a pass to a teammate before he gets tackled. (Photo 4 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
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"What nice arms you have, dude." RJC player gets the ball in a line-out. (Photo 5 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
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An ACS(I) player shouts with joy at going over for a try against RJC. (Photo 6 © Liu Yongjia)
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An ACS(I) player grabs the ball and runs while RJC players try to chase him down. (Photo 7 © Wee Ban Bee)
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An ACS(I) player gets taken down by RJC defenders. (Photo 8 © Wee Ban Bee)
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Shane Gan of ACS(I) kicks the ball forward to move the attack into the RJC half. Looking on is teammate Timothy Gay. (Photo 9 © Wee Ban Bee)
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Ian Gan of ACS(I) tries to break free. (Photo 9 © Wee Ban Bee)
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ACS(I) player attempts a forward punt. (Photo 10 © Wee Ban Bee)
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"It’s a try!" ACS(I) supporters cheer as their team makes a successful try. (Photo 11 © Wee Ban Bee)
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Martin Eddie Butler of ACS(I) player makes a run with the ball but an RJC player attempts to bring him down from behind. (Photo 12 © Wee Ban Bee)
These were the boys who sweated it out on the pitch this afternoon. Good job, everyone.
Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)
1 – Eric Ong
2 – Daryl Thio
3 – Liu Yi
4 – John Yeo
5 – Leo Yi Shyen
6 – Martin Butler
7 – Timothy Gay
8 – David Cheong
9 – Shane Gan
10 – Ian Gan
11 – Tang Hon Wei
12 – Justin Boey
13 – Blandon Tan (Captain)
14 – Md Khairulanwar
15 – Shannon Tan
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John Wisnioski of RJC goes on a searing run against ACS(I). (Photo 13 © Joshua Tan)
Raffles Junior College
1 – Aaron Teo
3 – Jed Chua
5 – Kevin Neo
6 – Foo Ming Qing
7 – Thaddeus Cheng
8 – Law Yi Meng
9 – Wong Kah Wei
10 – Lee Chee Meng (Captain)
11 – Shaun Yam
12 – Ong Zhe Han
13 – Stuart Ho
14 – John Wisnioski
15 – Nazirul
18 – Iwan Kurniawan
24 – Kenny Ng
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"Shhh … don’t tell them I got the ball." Everyone seems engrossed in something else as an RJC player gets ready to run with the ball. (Photo 14 © Joshua Tan)
Editor’s note: Right, we’ve gotten all the names, but we realize we don’t quite recognize the faces and the jersey numbers don’t appear on the pictures. So, if you recognize yourselves or any of your friends in these pictures, drop us a note in the "Comments" section, and we’ll update the captions accordingly. For more action shots, visit the picture gallery. Thanks! I must say though, ACS should consider changing the colours of their numbers so that they can be seen. We were pitch side and still couldn’t see the numbers properly. Small red numbers on a blue and yellow background are impossible to see. Just a suggestion to facilitate better reporting. Thanks.
Oh thanks Old Rugger for your compliments. Much appreciated. Award? What award?
so maybe 20 – 30 years down the road, these ruggers may become good friends since some of them are already friends on the fact they are playing together for Singapore.
okay.
go speak to those old old former Rafflesians and Saints Ruggers, most of them are kinda like friends now.
that’s why both side agreed and were happy to revive the Kiwi Cup.
man guys what does it matter who WAS what all that matter is who IS what. we toly acknowledge what kevin did as a saint and how much he developed in that time but the fact is in the context of this year’s A div championships kevin played and trained as a Raffles rugger. His past times with saints has nothing to do with how he has performed in the raffles team, or how he has bonded with the others in this team under the school crest. and for those of you know actually know the kid u’ll understand that he is a GOOD guy and he’s proud of his saints HERITAGE but, to a greater extent (i believe), of what he was able to achieve in RJC. he came to rjc not knowing many people around. but he’s adapted so well and contributed so much in his time in rjc so far that everyone, raffles or saints, should be proud of him as an individual. remember that RJC played all the top teams in this year’s A div championships and came out tops every. single. time. and this means so much to him and the whole team that its very hard for any of you who aren’t around them all the time to truly understand. he was a saints kid. but now. he’s a strappin’ example of a rafflesian. and he’ll tell u that he’s proud to be one. any day.
i bet you guys didnt know that rjc was supposed to have another good rugby player amongst their ranks,he was with rjc in the first 3months but didnt make it back after Olevel results.i heard he was the acs(barker) captain last year,and ironically is kevin neos direct neighbour.heh rugby is such a small world.lets all develop the sport properly and get the results we all want
Les, thanks for correcting the u11 results.
sheesh… why the arguement abt who kevin plays for?
although poaching school players is quite lame, its not like he got paid any money?? in the end he still has to do hi A levels and pass just like every other chap ! so what? if he played for RJ or SA ?
its not like he joined a Secret Society…
what matters most is that RJ won.. and AC lost again.
and yah.. the last time i checked ACS bragged abt how they were going to beat RJ and SA… and looked what happened..
so lets see who will meet in the C Div…. and who failed E Maths..
ps: in the mean time.. u can enjoy the Kiwi Cup
to les,
oh okay. i just needed some clarification on that. good luck with the server.
to saints1862,
i hope you understand i’m simply defending a teammate who has gone through so damned much with the team. peace.
to RJC:
okay.
Oh sorry for U-11 error in the record of past champions. I’ll remove that.
Hello RJC. When I talked about “black sheep”, I wasn’t thinking of Kevin. Sorry if that was the impression.
And no, I wasn’t referring to Old Rugger’s mention of the motto.
Everything I wrote about has no specific reference to anybody or any incident. I prefer, as a moderator, editor, photographer, videographer, blah blah blah of this web site, to let you guys have discussions among yourselves.
So I’ll butt out for now and let the party continue while I try and figure out how to pay for this site which is costing me a bomb now because the server host in the US is about to stick me with a USD 2,400 bill for over consuming server resources. So I may have to scale back on the site a little.
Sigh. Everything costs money.
Anyway, have fun. Don’t give each other a heart attack.
to saint1862,
your complete lack of ability to comprehend simple sentence astounds me.
my conclusion on the condemnation of kevin by saints was based on large number of calls of traitor by both HUGE portions of the crowd, as well as by more than 5 members of the team during the duration of the game. ur dear little letter have absolutely no relevance.
and to use a quote from a letter drafted out by a SINGLE man claiming that many are proud of kev as justification of this IMMENSE pride in this CURRENT RJC rugby player, surely these years of education should have hammered in some sort of evualation skills for you figure out that it isnt too strong an argument, no? So i’m sorry to disrupt ur little celebration at ur corner thinking you have struck gold with ur ricketty point. and oh yes to answer ur question, no, i do not believe that quote was condemning kev.
and lastly, if by some miracle u STILL do not get it, lets move on to how it seems like u have drifted away very much from the main point we started on. hell, we weren’t talking about if any commissioner or anyone for that matter from saints is still proud of kev as a saints.
we were talkin about whether kev himself still prides himself as a saints this very moment.
the answer is no. (and yes, darling. he’s said it himself many times)
he wears the Raffles crest, and is a full Rafflesian. simple as that.
oh. i took the U11 information from this website.
To saints1862:
—————————————————————–
saint1862 Says:
May 24th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
i disagree.
coz we already won U11 and U13 National Titles.
but i would agree if you only meant U20, U17 and U14.
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A Grand Slam only means the U20, U17 & U14. Thought this was made so clear the last it was brought up? Wasn’t that by you?
This has also been clarified by Les.
Btw, the U11 can’t be won by Saints since the 2007 tournament hasn’t even been played yet. Someone must have fed Redsports the wrong info.
Hello, I am an AC boy. Or if you’d like to be a picky nancy-boy(*gasp*), I WAS an AC boy. dudes… how old are we again? 17? 18? Let them choose their own schools.
I’ll put myself in your shoes. Just to prove a point.
//
Hey man check out the RJ lineup! 5 FORMER AC boys! ZOMGOSH. TRAITORS! DEFECTORS! TOTALLY MAN!
//
Please. Please. Black sheep?
Rugby is a gentleman’s game. Please keep it that way. A great game was played yesterday. Both teams kept their school’s pride and honour with dignity, unlike this irrelevant squabble.
“members of his ex school who oh-so-loved-him screamed “traitor" at him… You bunch treat him as a mere commodity, worshipping him when he’s an asset, and condemning him once he has outlived his usefulness to yourselves. But not us. not at Raffles.”
i sense a great load of SARCASM
which school do not have black sheep?
every schools have. so why stereotype?
who say we condemn him?
it’s that few black sheep that condemn him.
“ONCE A SAINT, ALWAYS A SAINT. Kevin, I and many are proud of you." – is this statement condemnation? LOL. ROFL.
When RJC rugby team was celebrating the victory, Kevin walked, hugged and shook hands with his former team/school mates and coaches.
He played very hard for RJC, which he ought to do and he did.
and the following is what a very respectable Saint alumnus (who was an old boy, teacher, rugger, rugby coach and Board of Governor) said in his e-mail to a few hundred people in his mailing list: “ONCE A SAINT, ALWAYS A SAINT. Kevin, I and many are proud of you.”
Hey chill dudes,
regardless of who’s playing for who now, we should be glad if the game was played well by the player and the team. Personally, I’m kinda happy and proud that ACS(I) managed to develop the 2 wingers Shaun and John into the good players they are now. Yes they did move to RJ but that is their decision, some may call it traitor or what may but ultimately, it’s nothing that we can decide for them.
About Kevin Neo, he’s a rafflesian now. Be proud of his roots as a Saint and it doesn’t matter whether you personally think he’s a Saint or a Rafflesian now, enjoy the game played by the players.
On a personal note, I’m an Acsian, and Proud of it but I know a good match when I see one and this could be one of the better matches in time to come. I thought that the first try from Raffles was superbly excuted, the switch was spot on that that really sliced open the AC defence. About Reffing decisions, some may complain but personally I felt this was one fairly reffed, almost all the decisions were good.
eNJOY THE GAME. bICKER LESS.
Thanks Les for the wonderful photo and Hwee Cheng for the report. Well Done!
I propose that we dominate Les for an award for the promotion of School Sports. Any one in favour of it?
Hi Wah Lau,
Agreed with you. Our school boy Rugby standard is very high. If you were to view the video of the Final 10 year ago, you would have realized how far we have come.
Agreed with you too regarding the sad situation that many of today star school boy players quit before reaching their peak. The society here is not conducive for producing promising Rugby player.
You are right. SRU must take the lead to groom these players as future internationals. The schools have done their parts. SRU should provide the environment, exposure and experiences for these players to continues after leaving schools.