wah lau.... after all the matches were through, we ended up as shield runners-up... there were eight teams... so do the math yourself... haha...

the results don't actually show the whole storey... we played some excellent rugby but we let ourselves down in the last few minutes of each game, letting in some stupid tries....

NY was put into a pretty tough pool... not to make excuses, but our opponents were all physically tougher than us... TP, ITE and SAS...

NYJC vs. TP:
the first eight minutes of the match was all NY... we made many raids into their 22 and had a couple of opportunities within their 5 metres... even had a five metre lineout frm a wonderfully kicked penalty frm fawwaz... we did a short pass to boon to take the crash and set up the pick and drive... abang followed up and then the ref called the penalty against us for holding on... abang had just hit the deck and he made a clear attempt to release the ball but there were some bodies on top of him pressing the ball down... and the ref deemed that as holding on... frm that penalty, our game went all the way downhill and we conceeded the try just before the horn went... haiz... gotta play to the ref lar so bo pian... that was the referee's judgement and we gotta accept that.... wasted match that we could have won against a physically stronger and larger pack...

NYJC vs ITE:
we played an excellent game against the eventual cup finalists.... as the ITE coach said to us after the match was over,"you boys really gave them a run for their money"... not to sound too proud or arrogant, but i think that we seriously under-performed during that match... we again had many ventures into their 22 and we attacked their tryline on a number of occasions.. but we couldn't convert them into tries... in the end another series of penalties gave them a couple of tries.... again we played a good match against a fitter and harder running team... but i doubt all of us put our entire effort into the match and we could have done better...

NYJC vs. SAS:
it's the singapore american school... not the saints... it was supposed to be a revenge match for us and i so wanted the win... not just for revenge but also because it might give us a lifeline to get into the bowl finals... in the end we lost to three tries... the only thing that i was happy abt in the game was that i tackled two of them out of bounds.... first this tall guy frm their senior team then another guy frm their junior team... overall, it was a much improved performance frm the last time that we met them... better play and better defense....




i so desperately wanted to win something for NY rugby... this was our chance to prove that we weren't a pushover team and that we could compete for larger titles in national competitions... we showed our grit by holding such teams as SAS and ITE to a couple of tries and we did show that we could attack as well making several runs at the opposition defense line... but i don't think that it was near enuf and there has to be a lot more work done on our side....

we also lost the shield to SRJC... a match that was more like a training game than an actually competition due to the many bonds btwn the two teams.... congratulations to SR on their win and a big thank you to them for bringing us down to earth... we needed that kind of wake up call... i couldn't do much in that match... we were attacking all the way in the first half and i was taken off towards the end of the first half... so i couldn't do anything abt the penalty try that they scored towards the end.... but they have spoilt NY's 100% win record against them and my motivation for the rest of the trainings is to keep them to that one win...


NYJC'll be back... and trust me... it'll be with a vengence....