Story by Les Tan. Pics by Les Tan and REDintern Vanessa Lim.
Yio Chu Kang Stadium, Friday, August 15, 2008 – The Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) beat St. Andrew’s Secondary 39-0 in a one-sided C Division Championship final to complete the rugby grand slam. ACS(I) won the A and B Division titles this year and are now the first school in Singapore school history to hold the A, B and C titles in a single calendar year.
Having beaten the Saints 41-5 in an earlier second round game, the only question was the margin of victory on the day. ACS(I) quickly answered that with an early try and by half-time, they were up 15-0. Saints did not even get inside the 22m line of their opponents half and were unable to put any sustained and meaningful pressure on ACS(I).
The second half was more of the same with four ACS tries and the only stress for ACS(I) was whether James Morgan would convert any tries after having missed all three in the first half. In the end he did manage to convert two although what most people will remember was the fact that he managed to hit the rugby posts twice.
Two of the ACS(I) tries in the second half saw them tear through the Saints backline like a knife through butter with multiple passes and a final strong run over the try line. This will go down as one of the most lopsided finals in C Division but given the fact that the mercy rule had to be invoked even in the semi-final when ACS(I) beat Bedok Town 89-7, this was not wholly unexpected.
ACS(I) won all their preliminary round games 80-0 with the mercy rule evoked in each game and they outscored their opponents throughout the whole championship by 512 to 15 points. This is the 12th consecutive C Division title for ACS(I).
The top four teams – ACS(I), Saints, Raffles Institution and Bedok Town – all received their medals and trophies at the end of the game but perhaps they should create a special prize next year for the players who score against ACS(I) next year. There certainly aren’t many of them.
Try scorers:
ACS(I): Md Rossafiq (1), Daniel Chong (1), Jay Koh (1), James Morgan (2), Winson Yung (1), Joey Wee (1)
Other results:
3rd/4th placing game: RI 37 Bedok Town 7
I think it is a reasonable assessment that a joint holder of a title does not equate to an outright title holder.
To win outright counts for more. Hence, ACS(I) is still the only school to hold three titles in the same calendar.
Perhaps there is another year besides 1975 where RI held three titles? I may have overlooked it. I’m busy with other sports stories and so sometimes don’t pore over the past champions page for a particular sport with a fine toothcomb.
If you or anyone find any other year where a single school held all three titles in a single year, please let us know. Thanks.
Les
Joint holders still means they own the title, albeit with Saints. Ridzy mentioned RJC didn’t exist in the 70s. RI won C, B and A div. So why was he corrected?
Quote from the main article, paragraph 1″ …ACS(I) won the A and B Division titles this year and became the first school in Singapore school history to hold the A, B and C titles in a single calendar year.”
Key words are: first school in Singapore school history to hold the A, B and C titles in a single calendar year.
RI held A, B and C titles in 1975. Therefore the correction made in reference to the article by Ridzy is valid.
Joke’s clever manipulation of the nickname Ridzy to dizzy was rather condescending which is why people feel that ACSi breeds arrogance and fail to see the many positive qualities of the school.
@The Devil: I am not sure what gave you the impression I’m laughing at anyone because I am not.
You can share your story here and we will post it. Unlike the staff payroll of $10 million the SPH group of newspapers has, we depend on each other on this site to back check facts. So if there is something wrong, then please feel free to point out errors on the post, but no need to take a swipe at me or anyone else.
So if you have a story to correct the facts, please send it along. You send it, we post it.
Your comments too, short of slander, will always get heard on this site. I just retrieved your comment even though for some reason it ended up in the spam queue (suggest you change your nickname. I think the Akismet Spam filter doesn’t like it. This plugin is a killer app man. It weeds out 99.99% of porn ,meds and other assorted crap but it gets over zealous and some legit comments end up there).
The year you are referring to – 1975 – RI were joint holders of the A title.
So ACS(I) is still the first school to hold all three titles by itself.
So, yes, agree, the truth must prevail above all else.
Les and Joke, in 1975 RI won A, B and C titles. NOT RI and RJC. There was no RJC then. RI was thus the first. I begin to wonder about the journalistic quality of this website. First you got the facts wrong. Then you laugh at someone who is correcting you when he is actually right. You can dislike the opposition all you like but the truth must prevail above all else.
Up and On
hi ridzy……dizzy…..
Give more credit to the redsports’ reporters. They wont report irresponsibly without the facts.
RI/RJC r 2 entities, whereas ACSI is 1.
We talking about the SAME ONE SCHOOL winning 3 titles.
Only ACSI has done it!!!
Accept the truth la.
Give honour to whom honour is due.
ACS FOREVER!!!
As you have mentioned, they were technically two schools.
The point is that ACS(I) is the same school holding three titles.
We have the history on this website at the PAST CHAMPIONS tab above.
You can check it for yourself.
Hi Guys,
You need to go back deep into hstory in the 70s to confirm whether ACS (I) is really the 1st school to have a grandslam.
RI did it in the 70s when they they had Pre-U centres…ie before the invention of Junior Colleges….
And RI-RJC did the triple grandslam in 82-83-84 though technically they are 2 different schools.
Reporters = check your facts LAHHHHH
There’s absolutely no contest this year la. ACSI is in a class of its own, completely outclass the rest.
What a boring, one-sided game…
and saints seemed more interested in delaying tactics ( possibly not to lose too wide a margin), than trying to score and close the gap….SIGH!
LOL!!!
You’re welcome, Rugby Fan.
cheers
les
Hi Les & Vanessa, Thank you for notifying us (via email) on the report/story. Well done all teams! Thank you for an exciting year of School’s Rugby.
AC all the way!! saints..try harder next year..tough luck! played well!!
lets go AC =D
i belive btss has a good batch this year for C , but u guys arent the first neighbourhood sch.To go top 4, Sch like Pioneer n greenridge have been up dere a few times, just incase u forgotten Last year B div pioneer was 4th…Almost beat Acsi 11-7..
but still congrat to acsi for the grandslam
Congrats ACS..U all are the best!!
cant wait for the region tournament!!Go Team East!!
Outclassed
Congrats ACS(I) on winning the 3 titles back home this year and well game played on friday’s finals!(:
Btss is a good team…even if they have fast runner or some..they still manage to get to the top 4….the BTSS guy you said arrogant is just proud and happy that his school manage to get top 4 for the first time..you guys should understand and stop saying bad team abt them..im not gonna challenge anyone who disagree with me..(peace and out)
Thanks for all the name updates, guys.
congrats AC!
photo 1…joey)(ac) with ball
photo 2…lester(sa) tacklin daniel chong(ac)
photo 3…david chibueze daniel(sa) on gabriel tan(ac)
photo 4…jedaiah(sa)
photo 5…rauf(sa)fend off jay(ac)
photo 6…lin yong(sa) tackle samuel(ac)
photo 7…james morgan(ac)
photo 8…rauf(sa) missed joey(ac)
photo 9…terence(sa) closin his eyes