Contributed by reader Amos Siow

NUS Field, Monday, February 11, 2008 – The National University of Singapore (NUS) steamrolled the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore (NTU) 22-0 in what was initially expected to be a close game. The victory vaulted NUS to the top of the Tri-Universities Rugby Championship, an inaugural tournament also involving the Singapore Management University (SMU) and played on a home-and-away basis.

The first half was relatively close, with NUS Captain Shafiq Zulazmi scoring a trademark try, after his forwards had done most of the work to push over the try line from a 5m scrum. The half-time score remained at 5-0, after NUS kicker Valmiki C Nair missed his first one of the night.

In the second half, NTU tried to stage a fight back but were visibly out-muscled and out-played in the forwards. NTU soon lost heart and lost the contest in the breakdowns and allowed NUS Shafiq Zulazmi to add another to his tally, a try that was almost a carbon-copy of the first one. Valmiki C Nair again failed to provide the extra points and the score remained at 10-0.

From the restart, NTU started to panic and looked desperate trying to put points on the board to keep within reach. But NTU’s Fullback Aidill 40m penalty attempt at goal sailed agonizingly wide. Aidil also missed a 30m drop goal attempt and his teammate flyhalf Daniel Thiam’s drop-goal attempt also sailed wide.

These wasted attempts to convert pressure into points turned against NTU, and NUS clinically punished them, recycling the ball quickly at the breakdowns and put speedster Jonathan Chen into space to score the third try of the game for a 15-0 lead.

With 5 minutes to go, NTU threw caution to the wind and played for pride, determined to put a score on the board. With consecutive penalties going their way, the Boon Lay Warriors made waves of crashes, but failed to make much ground. In the end, the night was summed up when NUS turned over the ball from yet another unproductive NTU crash and ran the ball from their own 22m line, unleashing winger Jonathan Chen to score under the post. Valmiki C Nair provided the extra two points and the game ended 22-0 to NUS, with NUS getting the bonus point for scoring four tries.

NUS vs NTU
Scoreline: 22-0
NUS
Tries: Shafiq Zulazmi (2), Jonathan Chen (2)
Conversion: Valmiki C Nair (1)

For more details, please visit the Fixtures+Results page.