I HOPE everyone had an enjoyable Gawai. I did.

Although last Saturday was Gawai’s eve, turnout for the weekly game was quite good with all present having a game of 12 which later increased to 13 a-side.

Muazamir Amir did the honours of blowing the game otherwise there would not have been any. Thanks Amir.

It was certainly good to see such a turnout, and I hope this will augur well for the game throughout the year, and for years to come.

Although it was a long weekend, the players did themselves proud with a fairly good turnout for training on Tuesday, a public holiday.

This shows the players are taking the game seriously and want to improve, and win something with Club.

In fact, after the trip to Sibu for the SRU President’s Cup, I sense there’s a purpose and camaraderie among the players as exemplified by the workout on Tuesday.

In the games after the Sibu trip, the players showed a revitalised attitude, and improvement, especially in the breakdowns at mauls and rucks, picking up the ball and moving forward instead of waiting as previously.

For most of these players, the President’s Cup was probably the first time they had experienced intense, hard, and bruising games but they came through it all with their heads held high.

Guess for them, it was a baptism of fire but they acquitted themselves well.

In the first match against defending champions Sibu, they were tackling a side miles ahead of them technically and tactically but they never gave up or let their heads drop even when they knew they did not stand a chance of winning.

I know some of the boys were on their last legs towards the end of the match but they gritted their teeth, knuckled down to the job, and did not capitulate.

They wore the colours of Club with pride that afternoon in Sibu.

I’m sure the trip has whetted their appetite for the game and opened up more opportunities for them to play matches of such high intensity and tempo.

They saw for themselves what Sibu did during the tournament, learnt from it and applied the lessons learnt to their own game … which was apparent in the way they played following the trip.

For the efforts they put in before and after the Sibu trip, I appreciate it. Noel from Lodge School managed to rouse up a few of his schoolmates on Tuesday afternoon to run around and practise. He has been trying to get his fellow Lodgers to join him for weekly games and I guess he finally did it.

I hope Noel’s mates — after the practice on Tuesday — will want to know more about the game and turn up for training and weekend games, and in turn, bring more of their mates down to the field.

Noel never played the game in school and he just turned up at the field one day with a mate from his final year, and since then, has never looked back.

When he first started, he knew nothing at all about the game but never gave up, taking the knocks, and kept getting up, and going. Now after more than a year, he has improved. The thing about Noel is he always asked questions after a game and learned from them.

He is one of those who do not talk back during a game but you notice him because of his willingness to look for the ball, back up a team mat, and take on responsibility of going forward, and taking the knocks.

Of course now, he knows how to give back the knocks himself.

Our Sukma squad kicked off their campaign in Pool A with the first game against Selangor yesterday at 3pm at the sports complex at Gong Badak — which the boys won 14-10, and today, they play their second game against Pahang at 2pm.

We are in the only pool with three teams, and have to win both or at least one of the pool matches to make the quarters.

According to Ismawi Mawi who has been taking charge of the squad during their centralised training in KL for the past two weeks, the players have been training hard and playing matches against the national squad which also happen to be in UPM for centralised training.

On Monday, they had a friendly against the Negeri Sembilan side before leaving for Terengganu on Tuesday.

The squad have been kept together for the past year or so, and have participated in a number of tournaments locally and in the Peninsula to sharpen their skills and technical and tactical play for Sukma, hoping to come back with a medal.

Of course, our aim is to go for gold but we will not put pressure on ourselves by making that an obsession.

What we will do is to go out there, wear the State colours with pride, play to our absolute best, make everyone proud, and try to come back with a medal. Let’s hope it’s gold.

Last week, the annual U-18 Malaysian Schools Sports Council’s National Championship was held in Kelantan but this year, we did not send any team.

The reason given by the head of the sports unit of the State Education Department was that we had not won the tournament since we started taking part and so there was no point going.

Whatever, the tournament was won by hosts Kelantan which defeated Negeri Sembilan by a whooping 57-5 with Terengganu third.

The State’s technical chairman for schools rugby Zulkaranainhisham Sarbini was in Kelantan to witness the games.

The Christchurch Crusaders won the 2008 Sanzar Super 14 title last week, defeating Waratahs 20-12, having gone in at the break trailing 11-12. In the second half, they played for 10 minutes with 12 men but still managed to stop the Waratahs from increasing the score while adding nine more points of their own.

With this win, they have won the Southern Hemisphere’s top provincial championship for a record seventh time to give their departing coach Robbie Deans, who will incidentally be taking charge of the Waratahs, a winning send-off.

In the final leg of the IRB 2007-08 World Sevens Series in Edinburgh, Scotland last weekend, New Zealand won the Cup and the Series, defeating England 24-14 while South Africa won the Plate with a 14-5 victory over Scotland, Australia took the Bowl, defeating Canada 24-14, and Portugal lifting the Shield with a 10-5 win over Russia.

New Zealand topped the Series, followed by South Africa, Samoa, Fiji, England, Argentina, Kenya, Australia and Wales (in joint eighth) and Scotland.

In the Guinness Premiership final, London Wasps crushed Leicester Tigers 26-16 to give their retiring captain Lawrence Dallaglio a fitting farewell.

The Wasps were the better side but Leicester could have gone closer if Andy Goode had had his kicking boots on … with a profligacy in front of the posts so untypical of him.

The IRB U-20 World Junior Championships kicked off yesterday in Wales with 16 nations in four pools taking part. The tournament will run for three weeks, and I’ll try to keep everyone updated. Argentina, Ireland, Tonga, and New Zealand are in Pool A, Samoa, Scotland, South Africa, and USA in Pool B, Australia, Canada, England and Fiji in Pool C and France, Italy, Japan, and Wales in Pool D.

There will be a game today with kick-off scheduled at 4.30pm.

See you all at the field.