AFTER two months of play, the KRFC-Guinness League 2009 draws to a close this weekend with the game between KRFC’s stablemates Blackcatz and Goldcatz.

Blackcatz, second in the table with three wins and one loss from four matches so far, should win the encounter to cement their runners-up spot.

Goldcatz are in fifth spot with one win and three losses. The match will kick off at 4pm at the Song Kheng Hai Ground.

In last weekend’s penultimate match between Unimas B and Goldcatz, it was the former, as expected, who won by 14 tries, seven in each half, to the Goldcatz’ one.

Unimas B got their first three by taking advantage of Goldcatz’ porous defence and a non-tackling veteran fullback to lead 21-0 before Goldcatz hit back with a penalty through this fullback.

The speed and coordination of Unimas B’s backline and the lack of tackling from Goldcatz allowed the former to build up a 38-10 lead at the break.

Goldcatz’s sole try came from a moment of carelessness in Unimas B’s defence which was exploited fully by Goldcatz to add to their tally.

But that was as far as they managed because in the second half, it was Unimas B all the way. Unimas B added 38 more points to chalk up a 76-10 win.

With this, Unimas B are the champions with a record of five wins from five matches, and 10 points.

The KRFC-Guinness League saw the light of day mainly through the efforts of Dick Bentham, president of Kuching Rugby Football Club (KRFC) who approached Guinness Anchor Marketing Sdn Bhd last year with the idea of having a league and convincing them that there are enough teams in Kuching to make the league viable.

After his sales pitch, Guinness Anchor Marketing agreed to the idea and sponsored the whole event, including the paddings for the goal posts, the flags for the pitch and the prizes for the winners.

In the 80s, there was also a league sponsored by Guinness Anchor Marketing but it was known as the Anchor League which ran for about three or four years before it came to a halt after a few of the teams could no longer raise a side.

During the heyday, the teams that took part were KRFC, Police, TUDM (Air Force) and Army. After participating for three or four years, TUDM and Army couldn’t raise their sides anymore due to transfer of their personnel away from Sarawak.

Although there were other personnel transferred in, most, if not all, of them were not rugby players and so they withdrew, leaving only KRFC and Police — which did not make the league viable and so it stopped.

The new league was launched near KRFC’s 50th anniversary celebrations and the response from the clubs in Kuching was very good.

Initially, there were seven teams but after three rounds, one of the sides had to withdraw. The seven sides originally were Blackcatz and Goldcatz, Unimas A and B, UiTM, Kuching Politeknik and the Army side drawn from Royal Malay Regiment.

The Army side had to withdraw after the third round as they had problems getting their side together as most of their players had to do their duties, patrolling in the boondocks.

This constant postponing of the Army scheduled matches gave KRFC’s hon secretary Abdul Ghafar Arshad (Dun) a major headache as he had to reschedule the match itinerary for the first three weeks.

In the end, the Army had to withdraw as they couldn’t give a commitment that they would be able to stick to the revised schedule and so only six teams were left.

The problem here was not the Army side’s lack of enthusiasm but rather the unfortunate clash of their matches with their duties.

Let’s hope next year, they can sort out this problem and play. And hopefully more teams will also join especially the two that used to be strong – Police and TUDM, which would make it more interesting with more matches over a longer time.

This would mean the players from all the teams would have the chance to play more regularly over a longer period and improve their standards. And it would also mean the playing base will increase, which is only good for the game rather than the weekly friendlies over the last few years, which did not really allow the players to improve.

The league has certainly been quite positive in raising the standard of play compared to a tournament which usually lasts only a weekend. The league has enabled the players to work on weaknesses before the next match. It gives them something to look forward to as they do not have a long break between tournaments but a week or two between matches.

During the league over the past two months, the clubhouse stands were full every weekend.

Teams that showed improvement were UiTM and Kuching Politeknik which, at the end of their schedules, improved their standard and did not concede as many points as expected.

Let’s hope they will keep themselves together and turn up regularly during the year for friendlies against KRFC or each other or the other league sides instead of disappearing until the next tournament comes around.

I certainly hope that playing regularly during the league would have whetted the appetites of the teams for more during the year.

Being the first league after a lapse of so many years, the technical and tactical standard was not as high as expected as the teams did not have any benchmark to judge themselves.

But it was very obvious that some of the players have individually and collectively shown improvement while some, for one reason or other, just seem to be stuck in a rut and couldn’t break out of the mould, which is a pity because these players have been turning up quite regularly for the weekly friendlies but still do not show any improvement at all technically, tactically and fitness-wise.

They have grown older but certainly not any wiser or better while some have shown slight improvement though not as much as one would have expected considering the time frame and regular games during the weekends before the league.

The inaugural champions and first runners-up of the KRFC-Guinness League will receive trophies and individual prizes while the second runners-up will receive individual prizes.

Barbarians are in Perlis this weekend for a 10s tournament where a number of sides from the Peninsula and Thailand will be playing. My information is that there are two tournaments – one for schools and one for clubs — and both will have 12 sides.

Barbarians left for the tournament on Thursday and will be back on Monday. I will keep everyone updated on their progress.

Locally, the upcoming tournaments are the Rhinos 10s in Miri next weekend and the SRU President’s Cup in mid-June where KRFC will be the host and organiser in conjunction with their golden anniversary celebration.

Miri DRU will not be holding the Baram Trophy this year but will instead be having the Rhinos 10s as a development tournament, especially for the schools.

The presidents, exco members and members of Sarawak Rugby Union (SRU) and KRFC extend their heartfelt sympathies to Hasnu Mohd Noor (Apai), a former KRFC president, and his family on their bereavement.