B Div 2010 Match Report 1: Montfort vs ACSBR

Montfort Rugby kicked off their 2010 B Div Rugby season against ACS (Barker Road) on 19th Feb at ACJC.

The B Div team, which was hampered by a series of unforeseen setbacks, played above themselves in the match.

With Coach Feng Hua inspiring the boys, the Montfort Ruggers started the match with a series of blockbuster forward moves that nearly yielded a try in the first five mins.

But ACSBR came back and scored a lucky try after a miss tackle by a Montfort player in our 22.

That was the only try of the first half with ACSBR leading 5-0 at half-time.

In the second-half Montfort Rugby continued to pile on the pressure but conceded a soft try which was duly converted. That was when our boys started to let their heads drop and conceded two more tries to give ACSBR a 24-0 win which flattered the boys from Barker.

The Montfort Rugby loss was due to missing four crucial tackles which resulted in four tries.

Good defence wins games and the boys are looking forward to making amends against Jurong Sec on Tuesday 23rd Feb at CCAB.

HT: (0-5); FT: (0-24)
Friday Feb 22nd at ACJC Rugby Field, 445pm
Ref: Harry Mason (ARFU & Singapore Rugby Union Referee)
Yellow Card: Nil
Red Card: Nil
Attending Teachers-in-Charge: Mr Singh

SRU Regional U15s Tournament

Shamir in action for North Zone

Dominic clearing the ruck for North Zone

Lewis tackling his heart out for North Zone


Eugene, the lineout specialist, in action for North Zone

North Zone Team in Regional U15s Tournament 2009

Eleven Sec 2 Montfort ruggers were nominated for the Singapore Rugby Regional Under-15s Tournament.

Neighbourhood schools nominated their best Sec 2 players for this tournament which saw the schools divided into North, South, East and West zones. Players from each zone were coached by Singapore Rugby coaches and played a series of matches below:
9th Nov North vs South, East Vs West
12th Nov North vs East , South vs West
16th Nov South vs East, North vs West

The Montfort Ruggers were part of the North Zone team that was coached by the Rugby Development Manager, Malcolm David, from Singapore Rugby. Special mention to the following Sec 2 ruggers who made an impression for the North Zone team: Alvin Yap, Lewis Syn, Kenny Lee, Eugene Sito, Mohd Shamir and Dominic Daniel. From this regional tournament, Singapore Rugby will choose the best of the best to make up the 2010 National U16 Rugby Team. Let's keep our fingers crossed that Montfort will at least have a couple of national reps in the U16 team next year.

The final round of games in the Standard Chartered National Rugby Academy Regional under 15's Competition were held on Monday 15th November.This coaching programme and competition was created to identify players for the SCNRA under 16 group for 2010. The thirty players selected following the games will now progress to a further training camp on the 30th November and 1st December.The games saw the West squad defeat the North in the final minutes of the game with a penalty by their captain Khairul Anwar, from Pioneer Secondary School, to seal the game 13 - 5 in their favour. The second game saw the East beating South by a large margin of 51 - 0. The score line does not reflect the effort of the South players who never stopped tackling, making their counterparts working really hard to earn their tries.

Pictures Courtesy of Standard Chartered National Rugby Academy

Montfort in SCC 7s

Montfort Rugby U16 took part in the 62nd SCC International 7s (Schools and Colleges) on November 6th. We played a total of three matches before bowing out bravely at the Padang.

In our first match against local powerhouse, Saint Andrew's Sec, we were soundly beaten by Saints. Nonetheless, we bounced back with a win against Greenridge Sec. Montfort beat Greenridge 7-5 in a close match. Our try scorer was Nabil Idris. In the final match for the day, we lost by one converted try against expat school Overseas Family School. Final score was 12-5 in favour of OFS. Our try scorer was Ivan Lim. Despite the one win and two loss record in the 7s tournament, it is still an improvement from last year when we didn't win a single match during the SCC 7s in November 2008. Inch-by-inch, Montfort will continue in its long journey to rugby excellence. Good effort from the Sec 2s, Sec 3s and Sec 4s who took part in the tournament.

Many Thanks to Mr Aaron from Saint Andrew's Sec for the match pictures.

As part of the SCC International 7's programme a Coaching Clinic was held at the Padang on the Thursday preceding the Tournament where more than Montfort Ruggers were part of the 120 players took part and benefited from the expertise of the visiting team coaches. Led by 2009 Sevens World Cup winning coach Paul Treu from South Africa, there were also contributions from Ponsonby (New Zealand), Impala (Kenya), Rugby Ecosse Wailers (Scotland) and Southern Lions (Australia). Though the weather was unforgiving as lightning interrupted the session, the players thoroughly enjoyed themselves as they gained valuable insights to elite training and were inspired by the players and coaches. Our thanks to Standard Chartered Bank for supporting this Clinic.

Montfort's Kenny Lee was featured on RazorTV as part of his involvement in the clinic.

The videos that had Kenny's involvement:

Mauls and Rucks - The pros' take (Rugby 7's Clinic Pt1)

Keep your chin up! (Rugby 7's Clinic Pt2)

The 3 D's of Rugby (Rugby 7's Clinic Pt3)

SCC 7s (Schools & Colleges Tournament)

The Montfort U16 will be taking part in the 62nd SCC Rugby 7s at the Padang on November 6th.
In the tournament draw held at the SCC Clubhouse on November 3rd, Montfort was placed in Group B alongside Overseas Family School (OFS), Saint Andrew's Sec and Greenridge Sec.

Our first match will kick off at 0828hrs.

The other groups consist of: Group A (RI, LFS, ACSI and Nhulunbuy High from Australia); Group C (UWC, Tanglin Trust School and Singapore American School) and Group D (Pioneer Sec, SJI and ACS Barker Road).

Matches will be played at the Padang.

Montfort Hosts Penguin International RFC

Montfort Rugby hosted the world-famous Penguin International RFC Coaching Panel at a special rugby clinic on November 2nd. Coaches from Penguin International RFC conducted an intensive coaching clinic for our Sec 2 and Sec 3 Ruggers. The coaches were former UK internationals.

The Penguins International RFC was founded in 1959 by the late Tony Mason and Alan Wright, both players for Sidcup RFC, who subsequently became Vice Presidents of Sidcup RFC and Kent County RFU. Penguins RFC are now recognised as the premier touring club in the UK, having played in or against teams from no less than 57 countries. Indeed, they are not only the most travelled rugby club in the world, but the most travelled sports club in the world. The principal objective of the Club has been to foster - by coaching and playing - the development, goodwill and camaderie of Rugby Union worldwide. The Club’s coaching and educational programme is organised by the HSBC Penguin Rugby Coaching Academy. The Club has endeavored to provide coaching sessions to the local rugby population on the majority of its tours over the last 45 years. In moving the club forward it was decided to formalise the coaching activities and in conjunction with HSBC the HSBC Penguin International Coaching Academy was formed in 2004.

Many Thanks to Singapore Rugby, HSBC and Penguins for making Montfort their Singapore stop as part of their global efforts in spreading the rugby gospel.

Sec 1 Ruggers Emerge as National Top 4

The Montfort Sec 1 Rugby Boys emerged fourth in the National Schools U13 Tournament at Saint Andrew's on Saturday 31st October.

The ten-a-side tournament featured teams from Saint Andrew's Sec, Raffles Institution, Pioneer Sec, SJI, Greenridge Sec, Bedok Town Sec, ACS Barker Road and Pierce Sec.

Montfort was placed in Group B which saw us play Pierce Sec, Saint Andrew's Sec, Greenridge Sec and SJI in the group phase.

In our first group match, we beat Pierce Sec 17-0. In the next match we met a gifted Saint Andrew's team and lost 0-19. But in our final two group matches, we notched up wins over Greenridge (12-0) and SJI (17-0).

With a three win and one loss record in the group stages, we emerged as Group B Runners-Up and faced Group A Winners, Raffles Institution.

In a hard-fought semi-final clash, we were beaten by a well-drilled Raffles team 0-17.

Despite that loss, we can hold our heads up high as we ended the tournament as the 4th best Sec 1 rugby team in Singapore, only behind Saint Andrew's, Raffles Institution and Pioneer Sec.

The Montfort Sec 1 team has potential to go far.

Pictures Courtesy of Mr Aaron Kong (Saint Andrew's Rugby TIC)

Montfort B Div Rugby Lions: M1 Schools Series Plate Runner-Up

The Montfort B Div Ruggers played their hearts out in the M1 Schools Rugby Series Tournament at Yio Chu Kang Stadium on Tuesday September 8th and emerged as Plate Runner-Up.

In a pulsating Plate Final against Peirce Secondary School, our ruggers conceded an early try against the well-drilled and aggressive Peirce team. But a brilliant try by our lock forward Harish Pandey levelled the scores with less than a minute to go. The Plate Final went into sudden death extra-time. With the scores still level in extra-time, Peirce was declared the winner because they had scored the first points during normal regulation time. It was a disappointing end to the day, but our Montfort Ruggers could hold their heads up high after a full-day tournament of four matches.

The day had begun with a 12-0 loss to the rampaging ACS (Independent) team in the first match of the group stages. But the Montfort ruggers picked up the pieces in their second match when they ran in four tries against Northbrooks Secondary. The tries were scored by Muhd Nabil, Harish Pandey and Mohd Shamir (twice). Two of our tries were converted to give Montfort an impressive 22-0 win over Northbrooks. With a one win and one loss after the group stage, Montfort were paired against Damai Secondary in the Plate Semi-Finals. In a robust Plate Semi-Finals, Montfort fell behind to an unconverted try by Damai but our flying winger, Ahmad Danial was able to level the scores with a scintillating run that was duly converted by Captain Muhd Nabil to give Montfort a narrow 7-5 win over Damai.

Despite the Plate Final loss to Peirce, the match had some positives. We are beginning to see the Sec 2s gel well with the Sec 3s and this will augur well for B Div 2010. Our boys were also mentally stronger and did not give up despite going down to early tries scored by the opposition.

The team that played today has the potential to go far in B Div 2010.

M1 Schools Series Squad for September 8th: Matthew Ho, Alvin Yap, Lewis Syn, Justin Seow, Harish Pandey, Leon Lim, Kang Dong Wan, Kenny Lee, Eugene Sito, Calvin Lim, Dominic Daniel, Muhd Nabil, Mohd Shamir, Jonathan Lim, Ariel Salim, Ahmad Daniel and Yong Cheong.