Kiwi Cup 2011 - Shintaro Tay (SASPhotog/VillageOnline)
Kiwi Cup 2011 - ShintaroTay(SASPhotog/VillageOnline)
On 21 January 2011, Saints from all walks of life, Secondary one’s, old boys, ex-students, teachers all arrived at Raffles Institution to watch the annual Kiwi cup match between perennial rivals St. Andrew’s and RI. St. Andrew’s have held this cup since 2007 and many hope to see us continue this domination and go for our fifth consecutive win.
The atmosphere at the stadium was electrifying. Raffles’ supporters outnumbered us and it was a competition to see who could produce more noise in the form of drums, cheers and mascots. Our voices were drowned by the din and a normal conversation was impossible to carry out.
The C division curtain raiser started punctually at 3.00pm.
Our boys outsmarted, outclassed and outplayed a physically superior Raffles team. They were twice as strong and twice as fast as us. However, Raffles chose the wrong tactic and tried to power through the midfield thinking they could walk over us. We tackled low and rucked hard, driving Raffles back in defence. Raffles had failed to take their chances while we took advantage of the slightest mistakes, converting them into points. The score at half time was 19-0 in favour of Saints.
The second half started with Raffles kicking off. Saints still continued their domination and controlled possession and territory. Raffles stepped on the gas to score one try but Saints still ran in a few more tries. The final score was 40-5. Saints won.
Next came the real deal—the Kiwi Cup match, a match between the combined A Div and B Div squads of both schools. It was the cream of the crop playing their hearts out there. Tension set in as both teams sang their school songs and Saints performed their menacing battle cry.
The match started at about 4.30pm.
Saints kicked off to begin this exciting match between two legendary teams. Once again, RI was bigger than us but we had one advantage, speed. We were faster and RI could not handle the pace of our game. Saints drew first blood, converting a penalty through the boot of Naresh. RI quickly replied wth a try. Raffles were in our twenty-two and from a lineout, the Raffles fly-half passed to the full back who ran through a yawning gap to race ahead to touch down, despite the efforts of Naresh. The try was unconverted which brought the score to 5-3.
Ruck after ruck, maul after maul, it was a pretty even contest and both sides defence were rock solid. Nicholas Yau broke the deadlock by breaking through two Raffles tackles, sidestepping one more before passing to Bryan Lim who scored in the corner. Naresh’s attempt at the conversion failed and the score was 8-5 at half time to Saints.
Raffles kicked off the second half. The second half was pretty even, with both teams struggling to keep the scoreboard ticking. Raffles’ handling let them down, knocking the ball on most of the time and failing to take their chances. Saints made a few line breaks but our attack was halted by the unrelenting defence of Raffles. After giving away a penalty, Raffles kicked deep into our twenty-two, putting huge pressure on us. Raffles swung the ball left and right, trying to find seams in our defence. Pressure was building up as our defence became disorganised. Raffles swung the ball left and their player knocked on. Edwin Chia, our winger picked up the ball and ran into open territory. He did not have the pace to go all the way and was caught by the Raffles winger but he managed to sneak an offload to Nicholas Yau who scored a memorable try. Naresh failed to convert it and the score was 13-5 in favour of Saints.
Raffles had three players sin-binned and Saints held on and the whistle finally blew. Saints had won the Kiwi Cup in 2011.
There was jubilation everywhere. Students were jumping about in the stands and people were screaming their hearts out.
After both the C Div team and the Kiwi Cup team received their medals, the Kiwi Cup team performed the Saints battle cry again.
The crowds dispersed and people began to leave. A few stayed behind to watch the Jim Weir Cup.
In the end, we achieved a clean sweep of the day’s matches, winning all four. Today was truly a great day to be a saint. Up and On!
