By REDintern Gladys Wee

Anglo-Chinese Junior College, Wednesday, March 31, 2010 – Visitors Bedok Town Secondary came to ACJC with high hopes of winning and getting into the semi-finals only to lose a valuable player while losing 10-15 to Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) in the B Division Rugby Championship.

Barker started out strong, with Thaddeus Soh (ACS (BR) #1) scoring a try after pushing his way through the Bedok Town defence. Howard Chan (#11) however missed the conversion.

After much struggle, the second ACS(BR) try came after Wesley Foong (#10) handed the ball to Darryl Chua (#13) who scored. Howard again missed the conversion but ACS(BR) were still 10-0 ahead.

After repeated reprimands by their coach from the sidelines, Bedok Town got it together and pushed their way over a try through Mu’az (#11). A conversion by Shahril gave them seven points and a chance to catch up with Barker.

Leading 10-7 at the start of the second half, Barker's Thaddeus got his second try. Howard missed his third attempted conversion but the ACS(BR) lead was a more comfortable 15-7.

From that point, drama unfolded. Bedok Town's captain, Adhe, suffered a concussion during the match, and the heads from both teams were called in for a safety reminder.

Sad to say, neither team learnt their lesson as Barker's Wesley and Maurice (#8) both suffered from their opponents’ tackles. Barker too were not much better in terms of self-control, giving away a penalty to Bedok Town which their #9 scored to make it 10-15.

Though both teams were desperate for points, the whistle blew on any more scoring.

"This was nothing like how we planned it. We underestimated ACS Barker and they had us beat. We have two injuries from the first team, one of asthma, and one of concussion,” said Hamizan of Bedok Town. "Right about now, we just want our team to be back together again."

The win left ACS(BR) tied on points with Bedok Town and St Joseph’s Institution (SJI) in the race for second in the group and a semi-final spot. However, SJI qualified for the semi-finals by virtue of having lost to St Andrew’s Secondary by the smallest margin (0-31). ACS(BR) had lost 3-73 to the Saints.

SJI will now take on ACS(I) in one semi-final while St Andrew’s will play Raffles Institution in the other. Both semi-finals are scheduled for Wednesday, April 7th, 2010. The venues have not been announced.

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