Contributed by reader Paul Kung
It was a great weekend of schools rugby last week, as the top four teams in the A Division Championship battled it out for semi-final standings. With roughly a week and a half to the semi-finals, the top four will relish the time to regroup and train harder to vie for that Padang invitation which has been confirmed for May 12, 2008.
St Andrew’s Junior College versus Anglo-Chinesse Junior Colllege, the ACS (Independent) boys versus Raffles Junior College - what a mouth watering May 5 it will be at the Old Police Academy. All four teams are loaded with players that have ‘big game' experience, and it looks to be the best round of schoolboy rugby so far this A Division season.
Saints simply ran out of gas against ACS (Independent) in their final pool game, and they suffered a lost at the hands of ACJC when the two teams met recently in the ISSAC tournament a couple months ago. Word on the street is that they have spent too much time on astro and too little time on the ‘real' thing. ACJC have looked rugged and determined in recent games, and coming off a win over the defending champions RJC will certainly raise their spirits.
Look for ACS (Ind) to out-run and out-shove Raffles into a Padang date. Nothing fancy about the 2008 version of the ACS machine, just simple basic skills, great conditioning and rock solid defense. They do at times depend too much on key players to carry the load, and that might be something Raffles will exploit. The Raffles team young with great team spirit, and are hungry to do the green and black due justice. Rough memory recalls that they have not missed a final date in the A Division for about 10 years now (might be more) and they most certainly are not going to let 2008 be that year.
So with no schools rugby this weekend, what is one to do? Well there is always club rugby. Yes, club rugby is making a return this weekend with the National Rugby Championship 7s to be held at Yio Chu Kang stadium. 12 teams will be entering, and with the debut of the Asian Tigers, a new club, it certainly promises to be a great tournament. A few 7s gems were unearthed in 2007, and with the National 7s team looking for 2008 Rugby world cup 7s qualification, this will certainly be the place to show it.
Have a great week and see you guys on 5 May.
why the plate finals not at HTA or same as cup finals anymore? why this year at ccab? not fair
the jjc team this year, j2s all played rugby for first time in jjc last year. and some even joined as late as dec.
i agree about cjc. experienced players there.
u got it wrong bout jjc. they have no club players. none at all. i have quite a few frens in jjc. and i thought pj have greenridge players?
Asked around for more inside news on the neighbourhood jc rugby teams. apparently pjc JC2 players are all novice players (ie, join in JC1 last year and learn to play the game). there are some jc1 players in the team too but mainly from 2nd intake. some played touch rugby in sec school in PE. no DSA cases cos if the players are really good, they would have applied for the Top 4 JCs or get poached by them after last year’s B Div. usually neighbourhood jc can get 1 or 2 experienced players is considered a major success! cjc has a huge pack compared to pjc and i heard that the SJI players that went to cjc are good. so maybe in terms of experience, cjc would have the advantage over pjc. jjc all along has been a strong rugby team and before the plate competition was started in 2005, they have been ranked within the Top 4 before. also i think their players also play at club level so they have chalked up some experience too. nyjc players got good fighting spirit and never-say-die. they just keep playing hard until the final whistle. i think i will let the Top 4 colleges fight over the cup but the main attraction for neighbourhood jc people like me is the plate competition. the players in the neighbourhood jc may not be as skilled or experienced as those in the Top 4 but they have a lot of passion and school spirit. also have good sportsmanship.
jjc have a good first team and spirit. but none played sec school rugby.
pjc have a hugeee forward pack. not sure bout backs. heard they have some DSA players too.
cjc have hard forwards, and few SJI players
nyjc are inexperienced more than the other 3 coz they have players who join late, but they have a heart to play.
go Abel Fam! go saints!
Seems like with all the focus on the Top 4, we have forgotten that there are other rugby playing schools in the A-Div too. Plate Championship SF will be played out coming Friday. PJC vs CJC, JJC vs NYJC. The teams seem to be around the same standard so could swing either way. Heard that JJC is strong this year. CJC also quite hard-hitting. Should be very entertaining matches. Don’t know much about PJC though. Understand that they are new kids on the block. Coached by a teacher I think. NYJC been around for a while. Ever came in Top 4 before in the Police Cup. So I think should be very good games to watch.
i agree with neutral. Stop playing around on the comment boards, lets duke it out on the field.
I think there’s no point arguing here who is better than who. Let the final results do the talking. Rugby is played on the field not on the internet. May the best team wins.
Urmm…
This current SAJC team has 10 guys who last won the B div champs…so don’t write them off!
I say SAJC win ACJC 19-3
correction, the 2006 A div SA rugby team was made up with at least 3 amateurs playing their first year of rugby, while another was from SJI. The back line only had 3 starting players from SAS, while others were from jurong, and one was even a baller from greenridge. That team was actually one of the most inexperienced team in 2006 top 4.
Saints 2006 A div was a different team,..they were the B div champs in their day. This current SAJC team is not of that pedigree.
I look forward to all an ACS final!
comeon Saints! remember 2006 where ACJC was kicked out of the Final for the first time since 1992 and when they were 4th place last year, unleash the Saints Fighting Spirit, never give up!
Keep the flame burning brightly ever!
Up and On!
actually we werent that good.. we just got lucky against raffles.
wat time will the match start??
ac pwns rj 😀
Go home lah RJC!WE ALREADy OWNED U
we will kill you.
there is schools rugby this weekend!! pjc, nyjc, acsi, jjc etc will be in action.