Nanyang Technological University beat Republic Polytechnic to retain IVP touch rugby title

Picture and story by REDintern Vanessa Lim

Singapore Polytechnic, Friday, January 9, 2009 - The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) retained the Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic (IVP) Touch Rugby Championship title yet again after beating Republic Polytechnic (RP) 4-3 in the finals.

RP however didn’t go down without a fight and what an intense fight it was. Even the crowd of NUS and SP players from the 3rd/4th placing match earlier were cheering for both teams.

The intensity was evident within a minute of the game when NTU scored a touchdown and it just progressed from there with RP fighting back point for point and by half time the score was deadlocked at 2-2.

The second half saw occasional mistakes with both teams dropping the ball.

A highlight of the game was when RP were about to score a touchdown, an NTU defender managed to intercept the ball and broke through but was eventually chased down and caught.

Each side managed to score a try each during the second half and when the horn sounded at full-time the score was 3-3 to push the game into sudden death extra-time.

Extra-time started with six players per side but neither could score. Every five minutes, one person per side was taken off the field.

Down to four players each, neither side could score but both came close to it.

The winning touchdown eventually came when, with three players left per side, NTU #9 Neo Kehui sprinted past the RP players to score the winning point.

Pictures from the earlier match that was played between Singapore Polytechnic and National University of Singapore at 5.30pm to determine the third and fourth places. Outcome of the match was NUS defeated SP 6-2 for 3rd place, while SP had to settle for 4th.

N.B. If you recognise the players, feel free to leave the names in the comments section and we’ll update the captions.