TOUCH RUGBY
IVP Touch Rugby Championship 2007/08
Story contributed by Red Sports reader Nicholina Chua.
ITE Simei, Saturday, January 12, 2008 – The Republic Polytechnic (RP) touch rugby team continued their march to IVP glory when they beat the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) team 19-0 on Saturday in the IVP Touch Rugby Championships 07/08. This victory came on top of having whitewashed the Singapore Institute of Management team 17-0 the previous evening.
Right from the start, it was clear that RP had no intention of letting ITE break through as their defence line held strong and forced a turnover after ITE failed to score before six touches were made. Good overlapping runs and quick recycling of the ball by RP saw team captain Su (#5) score the first try in the opening minute.
Off the restart, a determined ITE advanced to the 5-metre mark, but could not make any impact as unforced errors resulted in another turnover. As RP took full advantage of the rolling substitutions rule, ITE found it hard to mark the players who were constantly running onto and off the pitch, resulting in Cheryl (#28) scoring a try following her blistering run down the wing off a pass from Eunice (#9).
The girls in green were duly rewarded for their patient build-up as a missed touch on Ju (#23) and an inside pass from her to Dilys (#11) saw the latter adding one more for RP. Not long after, Cheryl (#28) scored her second of the game after breaking through ITE's defence line. A nice pass from Wathone (#4) to Ju (#23) following some slick moves put RP up by five after only nine minutes.
Soon after, Eunice (#9) faked a pass to a supporting teammate and that put herself through for her first try. Good communication between the players and a dump-split by Su (#5) put Ju (#23) on the score sheet for the second time.
Despite the fact that the game was fast becoming a complete whitewash, the girls from ITE soldiered on and came close to scoring on a few occasions, only to be let down by a lack of composure and bad handling near the try line. ITE's #14 stood out though, as she side-stepped past RP players on more than one occasion.
RP continued to pile on the pressure like a well-oiled machine and Narene (#8) dived over the line for the team's 8th try of the game. After putting together some good moves as they advanced towards the try line, Su (#5) spotted a gap and dove to ground the ball as she put RP 9-0 up at half-time.
After the break, it was clear that RP would continue with their relentless onslaught on the ITE try line as Sophie (#1) did a loop around Wathone (#4) and grounded the ball at the boundary of the field. This was followed quickly by a dive try by Eunice (#9) as she broke through the defence line once again.
The girls from ITE were then punished for a lapse in concentration as Dilys (#11) added to her tally after she spotted a gap and made full use of the space. Cheryl (#28) then made it a hat-trick of tries when a teammate, acting as dummy-half scooped up the ball, split the defence and passed it off to her to score near the sideline.
RP's good support of their teammates paid off when a fake pass from Su (#5) committed an ITE player, allowing Sophie (#1) to score on the wing to bring the score to 14-0.
Try number 15 came off an inside pass from Kaile (#6) to Ju (#23) as she ran towards Narene (#8), completely wrong-footing the defender. A clever fake pass from Agnes (#10) to Sophie (#1), who was running alongside in support had the defence completely fooled. 16-0 to RP.
It took a while for RP to get their 17th try as their impatience to increase the score line got the better of them. Then miscommunication between dummy-half Sophie (#1) and her teammates caused the ball to drop in the try zone without being properly grounded.
Subsequent attempts at dive-tries by Eunice (#9) and Eunice (#2) were futile as they were touched by the ITE players who were determined to keep the score line down on home ground.
RP's persistence finally paid off when, Eunice (#9), through her good reading of the game, intercepted the ball and scored to get her own hat-trick of tries. Eager to join the ranks of the hat-trick try-scorers, Ju (#23) danced past two defenders on the wing as she added her third to bring the score to 18-0.
But it was Eunice (#9) who would emerge as top scorer for the game as she punished the defence one last time. She broke through the defence line and ran nearly the whole length of the field with an ITE player actually coming pretty close to denying her a 4th try as she chased after her.
As the clock wound down, the girls from RP were anxious to make it a nice 20-zip, but could only come agonisingly close as they were let down by bad handling as their nerves started to get the better of them.
Having scored 40 tries in their past three games and with only one try against them so far, RP will definitely be keen to continue this winning streak as they face the National University of Singapore team on Monday night at 7 p.m..
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