Greenridge, RI, ACS(I) and Australian School make U-16 semi-finals of SCC 7s

Story by Gladys Wee/Red Sports. Photos by Chua Yueda/Red Sports

Padang, Friday, November 5, 2010 — Greenridge Secondary School, Australian International School, Raffles Institution and Anglo Chinese School (Independent) have advanced to the semi-finals of the U-16 category at the 63rd SCC International Rugby 7s Tournament.

12 hopeful schools gathered at the Padang with hopes of being crowned U-16 champions.The teams were split into four pools of three teams each.

Pool A, which consisted of Greenridge Secondary School, St Joseph’s Institution (SJI) and Tanglin Trust School, started the ball rolling at 8am with Greenridge and SJI going head-to-head with Greenridge taking home the first victory of the competition.

However, due to wet weather, the matches were postponed and resumed at 10.24am. The U16 category games were then played within 8 minutes with no breaks in between so as to get the schedule back on track.

The Pool B match between ACS (Barker Road) and the Australian International School saw the latter start the game by breaking past the ACS (BR) defense within a minute to score a try and topping it off with a successful conversion.

Though ACS (BR) fought back, AIS made three more tries, with another successful conversion, ending the game 24-0. ACS (BR) also took on St Andrews Secondary who did not make it easy for them either. St. Andrew’s No.13 and Barker’s No.25 had one try each after 8 minutes, ending Barker’s dreams of advancing.

In Pool A action, Tanglin beat SJI by two points due to SJI’s unsuccessful conversion, sending SJI packing with the loss of their two pool games.

In Pool C, despite their age disadvantage, the 14-year-old Raffles Institution (RI) players claimed their spot in the semi-finals with two victories over Pioneer Secondary School and Montfort Secondary School, 5-0 and 7-0 respectively.

Similarly in Pool D, ACS(I) triumphed over Singapore American School and United World College with scores of 19-0 and 15-0 respectively.

With the schedule back on track, games that started after 1.24pm resumed the original format of two halves of 7 minutes with a one minute break in between.

Starting with the last match of Pool A, the game between Greenridge and Tanglin saw no scoring in the first half. However, Tanglin quickly made a break for it and scored a try minutes into the second half. Greenridge quickly equalized with a try to make it 5-5. In the last minute, a Greenridge player ran past the Tanglin defense to score the winning try, securing the win as well as their position in the semi-finals.

In Pool B, Australian International School went up against St Andrew’s for the semi-final spot and claimed it after a 12-5 victory. In Pools C and D, Montfort and United World College came in second in their respective pools.

Raffles Institution’s Park Chang Kyu mentioned: “The SCC 7s is good exposure for us as it gives us first hand experience in playing with the big boys of the league.”

St. Andrews’ Secondary’s Adriel Toh also commented: “It’s a great learning experience as we can pick up the mistakes and prevent them from happening again in more major competitions [B Division].”

Greenridge Secondary School and Raffles Institution will face off at 10.36am on 6th November 2010 in the first semi-final while Australian International School and ACS(I) will meet at 10.54am on the same day.