Friday, April 24, 2009

Montfort Rugby Lions vs Unity (B Div)

The Montfort B Division Rugby Team beat Unity Secondary School 24-6 on 14th April in the Bowl 3rd and 4th Play-Off at CCAB.

With that win, our Montfort Rugby Boys emerged 3rd in the National Schools B Div Rugby Championship (Bowl Section).

This is a tremendous achievement as the team was coached by Old Boys Low Feng Hua and Ng Song Yu. Our Old Boy Coaches were the youngest coaches in this year’s National Tournament and did a good job.

The Montfort Rugby Boys played with pride, power and passion.

The Man-of-the-Match was the scrum-half, Calvin Lim of 3AA.

The try scorers in the match were Muhd Mukhlis of Sec 3AA and Muhd Nabil of Sec 3A1. They scored two tries each.

Our Montfort Rugby Lions played a hard but fair game.

The Rugby Team is now preparing for the C Division which will kick off in July.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Montfort Rugby Lions vs Bukit Batok (B Div)

The 2009 Police Cup rugby season is turning out to be a story of narrow defeats for theMontfort Rugby Lions.

In the Bowl Semi-Final played at CCAB on 7th April, our B Division Lions lost 5-7 to a well-drilled and disciplined Bukit Batok Sec team coached by local lad Muhd Zaki.

In this Police Cup this year, Montfort played eight matches. In the six matches that we lost, four of the matches slipped away from our grasp by a margin of five points or less. This means we lost two-thirds of our matches by either a try, penalty or a conversion.

The tightness of each match has some positives. It makes great viewing for the neutrals. But it is sure painful for the rugby teachers, coaches and players to know that just one try would have meant the difference between winning and losing.

Nonetheless we will take everything that happened this year as a learning point. Our team spirit is great. Everyone from the rugby co-ordinator Mr Singh right down to the Old Boy Coaches to the players faced many personal challenges this season. But we have all emerged tighter. What did not kill us, made us stronger.

As Mr Singh said: "The B Div 2009 squad is special to me. Ten years from now, I can bump into them and look them in the eye and said that we certainly gave it our best shot. I certainly gave a lot personally for these boys by paying for the transport and meal allowances of the old boys who come back and coach them. Our Old Boy Coaches are still teenagers who need to take bus from ITE to Montfort. The small amount that I pass them out of my own pocket is to help them for their transport and lunch. I will continue to guide the old boys to coach Montfort and groom the next generation of old boy coaches in the form of the current Sec 4s. Remember we are like the Crusaders. We will fight on!"

The loss to Bukit Batok was painful. But we will re-group for the Bowl 3rd/4th vs Unity.

Age Quod Agis.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Montfort Rugby Lions vs Bedok South (B Div)

Bedok South conceded a walk-over as they were not able to field the minimum 13 players to face our Lions in the B Div Bowl Quarter-Finals on 2nd April.

As a result, the National Convenor awarded the match to Montfort Rugby Lions.

Our B Div Lions will be meeting Bukit Batok Sec in the Bowl Semi-Finals at CCAB on Tuesday 7th April. Kick-Off 4.45pm. The winner of this semi-final will meet either Jurong or Unity who play in the other semi-final on the same day at 3.30pm.

Bukit Batok are a formidable team ably coached by national player Zaki. They have good forwards and creative backs.

The match will be a cracker. For more information on Bukit Batok, check out their blog http://redwingsrfc.blogspot.com/