Picture story by REDintern Chan Hui Mui
RI players bring the ACJC #22 down. (Photo 1 © Chan Hui Mui/Red Sports)
Old Police Academy, Friday, May 22, 2009 – Raffles Institution beat Anglo-Chinese Junior College 8-3 to capture the A Division Rugby Championship title.
The win also gave RI a record-setting 22 A Division titles while ACS and St Andrew’s have only eight A Division titles each.
This was the second final loss for the ACS family of schools. ACS(I) lost the B Division title to St Andrew’s earlier this year.
ACJC scored an early penalty through Muhammad Shaiful to go 3-0 up but they allowed RI to come back at them and Mohammad Saifuludin went over for a try and a 5-3 lead.
RI missed a couple of penalties but continued pressure by the RI backline with their running and kicking had ACJC scrambling to keep them out. With ACJC shutting them out on the ground, RI tried a drop kick but it sailed well wide to keep the score unchanged at half-time.
ACJC had one chance for a try against the run of play in the second half when captain Peter Wang broke inside the RI 22m line but he was hauled down by the RI right winger.
But it was mostly RI after that and captain Leonard Yap finally managed to convert a penalty kick to ensure an 8-3 victory for the Rafflesians.
An ACJC player tries to ride an RI tackle. (Photo 2 © Chan Hui Mui/Red Sports)
An ACJC player attempts a drop kick while an RI player moves in to block… (Photo 3 © Chan Hui Mui/Red Sports)
… but he manages to get the ball away in time. (Photo 4 © Chan Hui Mui/Red Sports)
Players contest the ball in a line-out. (Photo 5 © Chan Hui Mui/Red Sports)
An RI player passes out before he is stopped. (Photo 6 © Chan Hui Mui/Red Sports)
Muhd Saifuludin of RI gets hauled down. (Photo 7 © Chan Hui Mui/Red Sports)
RI and ACJC engage in a scrum. (Photo 8 © Chan Hui Mui/Red Sports)
ACJC supporters cheer on the players. (Photo 9 © Chan Hui Mui/Red Sports)
Well done Raffles. We have intense rivalry between us but there was no doubt RIJC deserved to win that day. We made so many mistakes in the match. Kudos to AC defending though, the fact that RIJC had to resort to trying a drop kick speaks volumes about that…
And we lost the B div too so, oh well, at least our iron ricebowl aka the C division will hopefully deliver once again. ACJC/ACS(I) lost alot of finals this year, but at least the B and C swimming titles are back home. Haha.
photo#7 muhd saifuludin
haha u gotta love shaun sin, nice clean sweep since primary school. u13, c’div, b’div, and now a’div. changing school twice. SA > acsi > rijc. grats.
the ac spirit was there for all to see. full marks to rjc for a dogged and sleek performance.
sighs just wasn’t meant to be. well played raffles. congrats to the team for your first title. you guys played the better game. really didnt expect you guys to come out so strong. Oh yea another cool point to note haha! The real king is Shaun Sin:)clean sweep of all titles from U13 to C div to B div and now A div.
I’d also like to make mention of the AC spirit observed after the final whistle. it was simply amazing how the entire college still stayed on to be with the team despite the loss. well done ACJC. Our hearts, hopes and aims are one.
given all the equally strong teams, what matters in the end is how well you played on the pitch.. and our ruggers rise up to the occasions..
This season’s title really was anyone’s for the taking. Considering Acs(I) beat Raffles 12-3. While SAJC beat ACJC 27-13. The 2 2nd place (from the group stage)teams somehow managed to pull together brilliant semifinals which made this year’s A division much more interesting than usual.
Final scores of the top 4:
ACS(I)12 – RI 3
SAJC 27 – ACJC 13
SAJC 0 – RI 16
ACS(I) 0 – ACJC 17
ACS(I) 22 – SAJC 0
RI 8 – ACJC 3
ACS(I) 2 wins 1 loss
RI 2 wins 1 loss
ACJC 1 win 2 losses
SAJC 1 win 2 losses
RI missed a couple of but continued pressure by the RI backline with their running and kicking had ACJC scrambling to keep them out. With ACJC shutting them out on the ground, RI tried a drop kick but it sailed well wide. ACJC also threw away two penalty attempts and the score remained unchanged at half-time.
lots of mistakes
RI missed a couple of ______ but
RI was the one who missed the 2 penalties and 1 conversion, not acjc
Thanks for the corrections.
hey redsport can you upload more photos of the match? i am sure there are a lot more photos. thanks!
Yes I presume there are lots more but the volunteer photographer didn’t have the time to put up more I guess.
The early penalty scored by ACJC was scored by Fadhil Roslan… not Muhammad Shaiful or sth
Thanks for the correction, acjc.