Saints celebrate their 2014 Kiwi Cup win. (Photo 1 by REDintern Rebekah Abbott)
St. Andrew’s Junior College, Friday, January 24, 2014 – Saint Andrew’s beat Raffles Instiuttion 8–5 to win the 2014 edition of the Kiwi Cup.
The Kiwi Cup is the traditional rugby curtain raiser for Raffles Institution and St. Andrew’s Junior College and Secondary. While normally there would be a C Division match preceding the main match proper between a combined squad of both A and B Division players, this year, there was only the one match between the senior squads of both schools.
On paper, RI were the favorites, having kept all of their squad intact from last year’s A Division runners-up squad. SAJC, who were the National A Division champions in 2013, had seen the bulk of their players graduate, leaving them with mainly players from Secondary 4 and 5 to fill the ranks. However, ably led by their captain, Samuel Koh, they were eager to show they were no pushovers and were chomping at the bit to win the coveted Kiwi Cup in front of their home fans.
Following the introductions to the guests of honour, Saints players took the field and threw down the gauntlet with their own version of the haka. Undeterred, RI then replied with a Maori haka of its own, the first time in years they had done a haka.
From the opening kick off, if was Saints who were forced onto the backfoot while RI pressed hard deep into the Saints half. From a clearance, Saints conceded a penalty for offside in front of the kicker. From the resulting kick, the ball ultimate came into the hands of RI number 8 man, man-mountain Ho Yishu, who ran laterally into space, before scoring near the flag to give RI a deserved 5–0 lead.
However with the failed conversion, Saints restarted and started to gain some momentum with steady slow ball play, repeated picking and going, and recycling the ball, till the moment when they nipped low across the line to score the equalizing try. Inexplicably, Viviyan Philips, the hero from the C Division last year, pulled his normally reliable kick just left of the post, leaving the scores 5-5 apiece. Game on.
Both sides then had chances to go ahead, but mistakes and poor ball handling was to put paid to all the other chances of the first half.
RI had one player sin-binned for repeated fouls, and with a man advantage, Saints then had a chance to go ahead when a penalty was awarded to them from the 50m line right in front of the posts. Viviyan Philips took a mighty heave, but the ball just lacked the legs to crawl over the bar, smack on line it was.
RI gathered the kick and quickly counter-attacked. They broke the line on the left and advance deep into Saints territory. From a series of scrappy plays, the ball somehow fell into Ho Yishu’s hands, and the strapping lad outpaced the whole Saints backline to score between the posts.
As the 1,000 RI boys and girls screamed in ecstasy, the referee Aaron Mackay consulted with his linesmen, and decided instead to disallow the try, on the grounds of an offside player interfering with play. Penalty to Saints, and that brought about the end of play in the first half.
At half-time, Saints were probably breathing harder than the Raffles boys, not to mention, thanking the Almighty for what would have been a 10-point turnaround, namely, from going up by three points to going down by seven at half-time. Maybe this was a sign.
The second half started much the same way as the first with both sides trying to keep possession, but lacking the killer instinct to open up the other side’s defense. In this war of attrition, it soon looked like a mistake would determine the outcome of the game. That soon arrived midway through the first half when Saints were awarded a penalty 30m in front of the posts. Up stepped Viviyan Philips, cool as you like, to slot home the penalty, and 8–5 to Saints.
Cue the signal for the Raffles 12th man, the supporters, to get behind their team. With thunderous cheers and cries, the Raffles players soon had a second wind, and they started pounding wave after wave of attacks against the Saints defence, only to be denied by tenacious and gritty defending by the lads in white and blue hoops.
RI were then awarded a penalty 10m to the left of the posts at about the 22m line. RI kicker Park Chang Kyu somehow pushed his kick wide right of the posts, to leave Saints still leading 8–5.
When RI stole the ball from a Saints scrum, they saw a 3-vs-2 situation with Ho Yishu leading the phalanx of the attack. Yet, Saints somehow stopped him 5 meters from the tryline, allowing numbers to re-group behind the line.
In the dying seconds it was all pick-and-go from RI and repel, repel, repel, from Saints, before RI decided to swing the ball wide to test the outside defence, only to be pulled back when a pass was adjudged to have gone forwards.
That was the final play of the match as Referee Mackay blew for time. The delighted home fans swarmed onto the pitch at the final whistle, while the RI boys wondered what else they could have done. They had come so close to breaching the Saints tryline, but close was never going to be enough.
No doubt it was a friendly match between two rival schools, but there was still a matter of pride and some silverware at stake. Saints showed that they were tough cookies and did not bend under pressure. RI played their hearts out, but today was not their day.
If matches in the coming months between these traditional rivals come even close to the excitement and tension as today’s match, we will have much to look forward to in the coming months.
Final Score
St Andrew’s 8 Raffles Institution 5
St. Andrew’s Squad
Tay Hao Xia and Jeromy Chua (props), Austin Ng (hooker), Joel Chua and Umar (2nd rows), Bernard Teh and Qushyrie (flankers), Samuel Koh (number 8), Colin Loh (scrumhalf), Zulfadli (fly half), Kelvin Yau (inside centre), Viviyan Phillip (outside centre), Farhan Hazri and Ezekiel Soh (wingers), Ruzaini (fullback)
Raffles Squad
If you know the names of the players, please share with us in the comments section and we’ll update the post. Thanks.
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