Rugby with Jim Lee, Sarawak News - Saturday, October 25, 2008 10:00 - 0 Comments

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Army teams vie for slots in Inter-Regional tournament

THE Malaysian Army’s Royal Malay Regiment’s regional tournament to select players for the Inter-Regional kicked off on Wednesday morning.

The region 1 Inter-Battalion Tournament for Sarawak-based battalions of the Regiment was organised by the 8th battalion based in Semengo Camp in Kuching.

The three battalions serving in Sarawak, Region 1, are the 8th in Semengo Camp, the 13th in Pakit, Sri Aman, and the 20th in Miri.

The tournament is a league format with the champions to represent the region in the Inter-Regional Tournament in Ipoh, Perak from November 9 to 11.

The first match of the tournament was between the 8th battalion from Semengo Camp and the 20th battalion from Miri on Wednesday morning, ending with honours even between the two sides on seven points each.

The second match on Thursday morning was between the 13th battalion from Pakit, and the 20th battalion from Miri with the former winning 10-0. The tournament was officiated by two army referees from the Peninsula.

The last match between the 13th battalion and 8th battalion on Friday saw both sides separated by just one try scored by the former who thus were declared the champions with two wins from two matches.

Overall the tournament was a success with all three sides in the fray evenly matched with the champions winning the tournament because they took the chances that came their way during their two matches.

On another development, the 4th Royal Armoured Regiment will be having their own Inter-Unit 10-a-side tournament from November 5 to 7 at Semengo with six teams taking part.

Sarawak Rugby Union will assist by officiating the matches.

More details when I get them from the organising officer today.

Kolej DPAH Abdillah is having a basic rugby clinic for its U-16 students from Forms One to Four, starting yesterday and ending tomorrow.

The clinic was initiated by the teacher-coach from Kolej, Ismail Daud, and is conducted by Mohd Ismawi Haji Noor (Mawi) and Zulkaranainhisham Sarbini (Zul).

A total of 70 students are involved and this is done to get a head jump on the other schools in preparation for next year’s slew of school tournaments.

This is, indeed, a good effort by Ismail to introduce the game to the new students from the school and others interested as Kolej has been one of the top school sides in the last two years and has been running SMK Agama Sheikh Haji Othman Abdul Wahab close in a few of the local tournaments of late.

Club won last weekend’s game with the Royal Malay Regiment’s 8th battalion by 27-14.

The match was an improvement from the previous week’s with both sides showing more commitment in their performances.

In fact, it was the army side that scored first to lead 7-0 until half way through the first half when Club got their first points on the board from a try by Wan Safuan to reduce the deficit to 5-7. Both sides showed plenty of running and breaks with some good, deft handling.

The week’s break between the matches was apparently well used by both Club and the army side to polish up their act and improve on tweak points identified during the previous week’s match.

The army side showed some flashes of what they were capable of if they had the time to work on their training by doing a few breaks from the backs that had Club’s defence scrambling back to cover.

In fact, Club’s fullback, Duncan B, produced two try-saving tackles to prevent the army increasing their lead and it was Duncan who set up Wan for Club’s first try by joining the back-line in a break.

Club also contributed to the match’s interest factor by doing some quick breaks of their own with the backline in particular showing a character completely different from the previous week’s patchy performance.

Two more tries and a conversion were added to Club’s account before the break for a 12-7 lead.

On resumption, Club added another try to increase their tally to 22-7 which stayed that way until the last quarter when Noel scored his first try for Club to pull away 27-7 before the army side came back and scored another try to narrow the deficit to 27-14.

The army side’s performance was certainly much improved after the previous week’s game with the players producing a tighter game and good tackling.

Club also showed a marked improvement but the forwards were still not working as a unit, with the ball still very slow to come out from the rucks and mauls.

They were not breaking from the scrums, rucks and mauls instead preferring to let the scrumhalf pass to the backline. Many thanks to Muazamir (Amir) for blowing the game last week.

I got some feedback from two former rugby players after my article last week, and one of them set me thinking about what I wrote about the present set of Club’s players and the probable cause of the existing apathy for the game.

The gist of this former player’s comments was that compared to the present players, those immediately preceding them such as Roshan (Goho), Vincent G, Halim (Alim), Mohd Salleh (Kojack), Yusuf (Ochong), Patrick G, Azian B, Aslan B, Eddy Yusuf and Khairol did not start playing until they were in their 20’s. The game was not in their schools’ sports curriculum then whereas the present set of players are almost all school rugby ‘graduates’.

Coupled to the former set of players were Mohd Ismawi Haji Noor, Abang Azman (Bujang) and Hasnu Mohd Noor (Apai).

And yet, they were able to play at a higher level and win tournaments, even the Plate of the Agung’s Cup in 1996.

He said this set of players had the advantage of good coaching from Barry Sawyer, a Kiwi, working here for the Bakun project.

His point is taken that the former set of players had the privilege of training under the guidance of Barry who brought a whole new dimension to playing the game based on the New Zealand system whereas the present set of players do not have that privilege. And also that while in school, the coaching that the present set of players received was basically just what their respective teachers-coaches imparted to them which was very rudimentary.

But then, they have not been entirely neglected as Club’s players such as Patrick and Mawi, who had trained under Barry, are around to coach them but the duo’s efforts are not producing the results.

So whose fault is it or rather where does the fault lie?

The coaches at Club, the methodology of the coaches, the players themselves or the teachers-coaches?

I may be sticking my neck out and putting it on the chopping block here but I do believe the root cause of the problem lies not with the teachers-coaches but in the system where the students are taught on a rote basis with information being fed to them without recourse or encouragement or opportunity for the students to pique their curiosity, feed their initiative or think outside the envelope.

So it’s got to the point where the students are not inquisitive, curious or bold enough to push the boundaries. Hence, when they join Club and are coached to do things, they do not find out why they are doing it this way at Club whereas their teacher-coach in school are doing it differently.

They just do it. So when it comes to match situations, they are not able to apply what they have learnt or been coached to do because they have not been imbued with the culture of being spontaneous, improvisational, and taking the initiative.

Oft times during a game, I find them waiting for things to happen rather than making things happen like grabbing the initiative and advantage, improvising, and doing the unexpected.

For them, it’s getting things done by the numbers instead of adapting to the situation and using what they have been taught in a positive way. None of these present set of players, except for one or two, have come up to me or the other senior Club members after a game to ask what happened during a game or why or what they did was penalised or blown up.

Feedback on what I have expounded here is most welcomed.

In the Heineken Cup second round of matches last week, Glasgow Warriors defeated Toulouse 16-12 in a group five match on Friday, and on Saturday, Benetton Treviso lost 16-60 to Leicester Tigers in group three, Stade Francais won 37-15 against Llanelli Scarlets in group four, Harlequins defeated Ulster 42-21 in another group four encounter, Ospreys beat Perpignan 15-9 in group three, Biarritz Olympique turned over Cammi Calvisano 41-10 in group six, Castres went down 6-13 to Edinburgh Rugby in group two and Leinster rolled over London Wasps 41-11 in group two.

Sunday’s matches saw Sale Sharks going down 16-24 to the defending champions Munster in group one, Bath Rugby defeated Gwent Dragons Newport 13-9 in group five, Montauban TG 15 went down 19-24 to Clermont Auvergne in group one, and Cardiff Blues winning 37-24 over Gloucester in group six.

Today’s game will be a friendly between Club and the Barbarians, a side made up of players from the Sukma and the feeder squad.

All Club players looking for a game, PLEASE turn up at the field by 3.30pm latest so that Club veep and coach, Yusop, can pen in his line-up.

Turnout last week was good with Yusop spoilt for choice to pick his side for the game.

According to Dick, turnout for the training sessions the week before was also good with about 15 or so players showing up for each session. This good training turnout, I surmise, was because of the friendly last week against the army side otherwise it would have been the same old story.

See you all at the field.