WITH the MSSM championship and sukma squared away, the game is in a hiatus now until the next tournament.
The next tournament on the horizon is the annual KRFC schools’ 7’s which has been penned down for the end of this month and the following tournament will be the Kuching Politeknik organised intervarsity 7’s in mid July.
The schools in the state which have confirmed for the schools’ 7’s next week should be in the midst of preparation now, and the likely cast should be the same.
This year’s champions runners-up for the U-15 and U-18 categories, Kolej DPAH Abdillah and SMKA Sheikh Hj. Othman Abdul Wahab aka SHOAW should be the favourites for the title unless the others like SM Sains Kuching and SMK St. Joseph have stepped up their performances after the inter-schools in April.
SMK St. Thomas might make a return to the game after a lapse of many years as they have got in touch with a former KRFC and state stalwart, Francis Sim, to help them in training.
Whether this move by St. Thomas is to prepare for the coming tournament is not clear at this point in time.
Be that as it may, this move to rope the services of a former player who has represented the state in the Agung’s cup in the 80’s to assist them in preparing and training the school’s team is a laudable move by the school’s authorities. In fact St. Thomas’s history in rugby goes back a long way, as they were the first school in the state to play the game in the early part of the last century when the first missionaries came here to set up the school.
And their rivalry with the other missionary school, St. Joseph’s, is legendary, so if they do return to the game, then it is certainly a most welcome move by them.
St. Thomas and St. Joseph schools were the pioneers of the game at the school level and over the years these 2 schools have produced many rugby players whose names will be familiar to the older generation of rugby players in the state.
Many of these players went on to play for Club and the state during their careers. Names like the late Bala Ditta, Titus Chou, Lawrence Tan, the above mentioned Francis Sim, and latterly Nicholas Lau, Dennis Liew, Syed Mokhsen, and many more were all alumni of St. Thomas and from St. Joseph.
Both these 2 schools ruled the game during the 70’s and early 80’s until the game stopped being played by schools.
But since the reintroduction of the game back into the schools’ sports curriculum starting during the late 90’s, the fortunes of these 2 once great rugby schools have waned.
St. Thomas disappeared from the game after playing for a few years while St. Joseph continued playing, and over the last 3/4 years, have slowly improved their performances and ranking, and are currently ranked third or fourth.
To do that, they need the support and encouragement of the principal, dedication and commitment from the coach, with assistance from former players of the school or from Club, allied to the spirit and enthusiasm of the players.
With their possible, and anticipated, return to the game, I’m sure the players in the school will be looking forward to playing the game against their counterparts from the schools in the division.
Like St. Joseph, St. Thomas has both primary and secondary schools, so if they start their development programme, there is no reason why they can’t return to their once halcyon days when they ruled the game at schools’ level.
All they need is a bit of commitment from the coaches, support from the principals, and a bunch of enthusiastic players. The coaches, besides dong their bit with the players, should also try to impart their coaching knowledge to their assistants, either a fellow teacher, or senior players in the school, so that there is continuity in the development programmes.
I’m writing about St. Thomas in my article this week, but this development programme is applicable to the other schools in the division, and throughout the state.
For those schools which do not have primary schools, they can identify primary school players who have played touch rugby and are studying in their school when they moved up to secondary level, to train and play the full contact version of the game, starting with the U-15’s.
Except for St. Thomas and St. Joseph, the rest of the schools do not have a primary school within their system but that is, and should, not be a hindrance or obstacle to their planning, if they are serious about wanting to improve their standards, and win honours, instead of always playing bridesmaid to Kolej and SHOAW.
There will be a friendly game today for everyone who turns up Song Kheng Hai field located along Padungan Road behind the Everise supermarket and look for Dick, the orang putih.