Story by Noor Farhan/Red Sports. Pictures by Vanessa Lim/ Red Sports
An RI player evades a Junyuan tackle and heads towards the try line. (Photo 1 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Republic Polytechnic Sports Complex, Saturday, March 5, 2011 – Raffles Institution (RI) dominated proceedings in their 39-0 drubbing of Junyuan Secondary School in the B Division Rugby Championship.
RI sealed the game through the efforts of Ho Yishu (3 tries), Nicholas Phua (2 tries), Chang Kyu (1 try, 1 conversion) and Maverick Lim (2 conversions).
Junyuan were unfortunate to have come up against an in-form RI, conceding two tries within five minutes of the start after some good Raffles offensive play. Their misery were further compounded in the second half as they conceded more tries despite valiant attempts to shore up their defence.
“I think they put in a lot of effort in the game, its just that they made a few wrong decisions in the game that had cost them. Other than that, the effort was there, even in their previous games,” said Muhammad Yazid, 25, Junyuan coach and alumni.
“The results are actually not a reflection of the whole game itself, even though we have not won a game, because the boys played really well in actual fact,” added Coach Yazid, who currently plays club rugby for Wanderers and has had 10 years of playing experience.
RI Coach Rhys Jones was proud of his charges performance in the game, and felt good about giving the fringe members a chance to prove their worth in the match.
Said the Welshman of his team: “We scored from good build-up play, some first-phase tries, some third and fourth phase ones which I was happy with. We mixed it up well, we had good continuity, we kicked when we needed to kick and passed when we needed to pass.”
RI, who now lie third on the table, have a 2-2-1 win-draw-loss record. They lost to rivals Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) and drew against both Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) aand Saint Joseph’s Institution (SJI) in previous matches. They will face Greenridge Secondary School next.
Junyuan are winless in fouru games and will be trying to turn their fortunes around against Saint Andrew’s Secondary in their next game.
An RI player scores a try. (Photo 2 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
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