Temasek Poly held to 3-3 draw by SMU

TOUCH RUGBY

Story by Muhammad Hannan. Pictures by Ng Cheng Cong.

ITE Simei, Monday, January 7, 2008 – The Singapore Management University (SMU) held POL-ITE champions Temasek Polytechnic to a 3-3 draw in the third game of the IVP Touch Rugby Championships 07/08 earlier in the week.

A Temasek player (in red) gets touched by two SMU players. (Photo © Ng Cheng Cong)

Temasek Polytechnic started the game brightly but took some time before scoring. Temasek's #9 Shimona created a gap before passing off to Captain #14 Nicole Chua to run through for the touchdown. Temasek controlled the game from there on but were constantly unsuccessful with the last pass.

An SMU player (in white) tries to slip away from a Temasek player. (Photo © Ng Cheng Cong)

SMU came close to Temasek's goal line via good running from their #17 and #14. Their hard work in penetrating the Temasek defence bore fruit when SMU's #9 found team mate #14 on the left wing. SMU Ã¢â‚¬Ëœs #14 easily went around Temasek's last defender with a well-timed side step to even the score up at 1-1. The score remained that way up at half time.

Temasek’s captain Nicole Chua runs with the ball. (Photo © Ng Cheng Cong)

The second half started with SMU utilizing their fast runners to penetrate the Temasek line. Temasek's defence stood strong however and prevented SMU from scoring. Temasek then came close to scoring when #12 Surya broke through but was chased down by SMU defenders who did excellent defensive work in tracking back.

Surya of Temasek comes up against two SMU players. She had the last touchdown of the game. (Photo © Ng Cheng Cong)

A second touchdown was awarded to Temasek when their lightning quick captain, #14 Nicole Chua, squeezed past two defenders and ran 50m before placing the ball down at the goal line for a 2-1 lead.

SMU however got one back not long after when a lapse in Temasek's defence opened an opportunity for SMU's #14 to turn provider for #17 to dive for the touchdown. 2-2. The game started swinging towards SMU's way as they quickened their play causing Temasek lots of problems. Temasek then faced an uphill task when SMU got another touchdown five minutes from time. An SMU attack down the right resulted in #7 doing good work by drawing defenders and then passing to team mate #14 who scored her second touchdown of the game for a 3-2 lead.

Shimona of Temasek evades a touch. (Photo © Ng Cheng Cong)

Temasek were then denied a touchdown 2 minutes from time when a pass to Temasek captain Nicole Chua from teammate Supiah was judged to be forward. Temasek finally got a touchdown to tie the game at 3-3 when #14 Nicole Chua ran through after a quick pick and passed to #12 Surya to score her first touchdown and get her just reward for all her running throughout her game.

Results of the rest of the games played on the day:

Nanyang Technological University 12 Nanyang Polytechnic 0
Republic Polytechnic 4 Singapore Polytechnic 1
National University of Singapore 15 Institute of Technical Education 0

Upcoming fixtures:

Wednesday, 9 January, 6:00 p.m.

TP vs NP, Field 1
ITE vs SP, Field 2

7:00 p.m.
SMU vs NTU, Field 1
NUS vs SIM, Field 2