Saturday, March 29, 2008

MSS 26 JSS 8

The match report from http://redsports.sg says it all:

"Montfort Secondary played a well-controlled game to beat Jurong Secondary 26-8 in the National Under-17 Rugby Plate Championship. The game looked like it would be a closely fought match with Jurong slotting home a drop goal in the early part of the match to go ahead 3-0. But immediately after the 3 points, Montfort struck back after poor tackling by Jurong gave them a chance to score a try down the wing to go ahead 5-3. A determined Jurong fought bravely back and camped in Montfort’s half for close to 15 minutes. Unfortunately, Jurong’s decision to play a kicking game denied them a chance to retain possession to gain points. Eventually, excellent defending by Montfort led to a turnover ball and a breakaway try by their huge out-center (#8) for a 12-3 lead. With confidence growing, Montfort quickly added a simple try and conversion just before the end of the half for a commanding 19-3 lead.When many would have wrote Jurong off at the end of the first half, the men in black proved that they still had something in the bag. Again they dominated possession and territory but kicking the ball out of hand did not help them convert their chances. A 5 meter scrum from the Montfort line was the closest the team had to score a try. Their persistence eventually paid off when they scored another elusive try through a well-rehearsed forward move to cut Montfort’s lead to 19-8. Nearing the end of the game, Montfort wanted to end on a high. The team piled on the pressure, causing Jurong to give away penalties in their 22. It was from one of these penalties that Montfort’s huge out-center managed to rumble over the line and score the last try of the game under the post. With a 26-8 lead, Montfort held on comfortably till the end of the game."

Great work Giants

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

MSS: 57 ADSS: 7

Montfort beat Admiralty 57-7 at SAJC on Monday (17th March) in the second round of the National Under-17 Plate Competition.

Our try scorers were Low Feng Hua, Nicholas Toh, Ng Kian Hao, Tan Ming Liang, Ng Song Yu and Mohd Firdaus.

The match played in blistering heat was memorable for the inspired play of Captain Low Feng Hua and speedy back Ng Kian Hao.

Well-done Giants.

Let's focus on the next two matches against Jurong and ACS (International) next Tuesday and next Friday respectively.

To God Be The Glory!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Police Cup - Plate 2nd Round Fixture List

Hi Gentlemen,
The 2nd Round Fixtures are out:
17/3/2008 [Mon]: MSS vs ADSS @ SAJC - 3pm
25/3/2008 [Tues]: MSS vs JSS @ SAJC - 4.30pm
28/3/2008 [Fri]: MSS vs ACS (International) @ CCAB Evans Road - 3pm

Good Luck Guys!

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Singapore Cricket Club Rugby 7s

Our Montfort Rugby Under-14 Giants were invited by the Singapore Cricket Club to take part in the prestigious SCC 7s at the hallowed turf of the Padang on Saturday 8th March 2008. We were given only two days notice to prepare for this tournament and certainly did not disappoint.

Montfort was placed in Pool A together with local powerhouse St. Andrew's Sec, Australian International School, Pioneer Sec, Greenridge Sec and Bedok Town.

Pool B consisted of ACS (Independent), ACS (Barker Road), Lycee Francais Singapour (French School), St. Joseph's Institution and United World College.

At the end of Pool round robin matches, the top in two of each Pool will advance to the Cup Section of the Competition and the 3rd and 4th in each Pool will advance to the Bowl Section of the Competition.

Montfort started their pool matches with a 0-22 loss to St. Andrew's. The run of bad luck continued with a 0-14 loss to Bedok Town. But our Montfortian Giants did not give up and turned around their campaign with two wins over the much bigger Australian International School (24-10) and the fired-up Greenridge Sec (12-7). We lost narrowly against local top-4 team Pioneer Sec in our final pool match. But because of results in the other Pool matches, our Montfortian Giants finished in the top four to qualify for the Bowl Semi-Finals.

In a hard-fought we lost by two tries to United World College. It was a gritty performance by our Giants and they left the pitch to a warm applause from the crowd who knew we had given the expat UWC a hard-fight. We also managed to keep the rampaging UWC shackled in the second-half.

Despite losing in the semi-finals, we are proud to say that we are now among the top eight of the local and expat under-14 teams in Singapore.

Our Under-14 Giants who played in this tough SCC 7s campaign were:
1) Calvin Lim - Captain
2) Mukhlis
3) Nabil
4) Ahmad Danial
5) Harish Pundey
6) Jonathan Lim
7) Leon Lim
8) Fardhan
9) Ariel Salim
10) Kirish
11) Mohd Shamir
12)Dominic Daniel

Well done Giants. The teachers-in-charge and coach who witnessed your performance on Saturday are proud of you. Here's to a successful National Under-14 Championship in July.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Police Cup Under-17: 2nd Round Groupings

The second round draw for the 2nd Round Competition was just made today.

In the Plate, Montfort has been placed in the same group as ACS-International, Jurong Secondary and Admiralty Secondary. First match will kick off Term 2 Week 1.

The other group in the Plate Group are Pierce Secondary, Bukit Batok Secondary, Damai Secondary and Junyuan Secondary.

The top two from the Plate will proceed to the Plate Quarter-Finals where they will meet the bottom two of the Cup 2nd Round Groups.

For the Cup competition, the groupings are SJI, RI, Unity Sec and ACS (Barker Road) in one group while the other group is made up of ACS (I), St. Andrew's, Greenridge Sec and Pioneer Sec.

This is going to be an interesting tournament. Good Luck To All Teams!

Sunday, March 2, 2008

M1-SRU 10s: Montfort are Plate Semi-Finalists

Our C Div Rugby Giants took part in the M1-SRU 10-a-side Rugby Tournament at Yio Chu Kang Stadium on Saturday 1st March.

In our Pool C matches, we started off with a match against powerhouse St. Andrew's Secondary. We were narrowly beaten 0-5 by the well-coached Saints. In our subsequent Pool C match, we smashed Admiralty Secondary 15-0. Our next match against the well-drilled Pierce Secondary . We were held 0-0. But by this match, we had already qualified for the Plate Semi-Finals as we had finished runners-up in Pool C. Saints topped our pool - not surprisingly!

In the semi-finals, we drew 5-5 with Greenridge Secondary. There was a further deadlock after extra-time. Under competition rules, if there is a draw in the semi-finals match, the team that scored first in the match will go through to the Final. Greenridge had scored first in the Semi-Finals, so our Giants bowed out at the Semi-Finals undefeated on the field of play.

We will be back in the National Under-14 Rugby Championship!

A few points that the Rugby Teachers-in-charge had taken note during Saturday's tournament: Compared to other schools (except for the top three of ACS-I, SAS and RI) Montfort has the biggest depth in terms of numbers of under-14 players. This augurs well for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 rugby seasons. Secondly, we have noticed that there are several up-coming rugby coaches. They have impressed us with their cool and calm manner in getting the best of their players. They are excellent motivators. Good luck to them in their future endeavours.

Montfort Sec:41 Bedok Town Sec:34

It was a local derby between two teams that had many shared experiences.

Both teams were coached by the same coach, Mr Kelvin.

Both teams had conducted several training sessions together for the past few years and had even played together in friendly matches both here and overseas.

But it was a brutal match that was played at SAJC on Friday 29th Feb with our Montfortian Giants edging out Bedok Town 41-34.

It was a nerve-wrecking match that could have been won by either team right up the last kick of the match. But our Giants spirit stayed strong!

In the end, our Montfortian Giants prevailed and qualified for the next stage of the National Under-17 Rugby Competition coming in 3rd in Pool C. SJI qualified as Champions of Pool C with five wins out of five, followed by Greenridge (four out five wins), followed by Montfort (three wins out of five), followed by Bukit Batok (two wins out of five), followed by Evergreen (one win out of five) and finishing last in Pool C is Bedok Town who lost all five of their matches.

The teachers-in-charge congratulate our Giants for progressing to the next round of the competition.

Bring Back The Biff!