Home - Sports - Rugby with Jim Lee - Less action on field as schools open
Less action on field as schools open
Posted on January 14, 2012, Saturday
WE are now into the third week of 2012 and not much is happening tournament wise, as the schools have only just started their first term of the year while the clubs will have their tournaments in the later part of the year.
The dates for the first of the schools’ tournaments, the U-18 inter-school and U-15 10’s is still not fixed yet although they have been tentatively scheduled for March in Kuching and Samarahan.
In Samarahan, five schools are slated to play while in Kuching expect the usual cast of the host for the U-18’s; DPAH Kolej Abdillah and SMKA Sheikh Hj Othman Abdul Wahab (Shoaw), the host for the U-15’s plus others like SMK St Joseph, Teknik Sejingkat, Vokasional Kuching, Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM), SMK Penrissen, SMKA Matang, Vokasional Matang, Sains Kuching, Sekolah Tunku Abdul Rahman (Star) and SMK Petra Jaya.
A school likely to make a return is SMK St Thomas after an absence of a few years as they have engaged the services of a former club player, Francis Sim, to coach them towards the tail end of last year. SMK Tun Abang Hj Openg (Taho) might also make a return.
Hopefully a school that made its debut last year, SMK Siburan will also throw its hat into the ring. Will we see SMK Sg Tapang for 2012? This school did not play last year due to various reasons and hopefully with the New Year, they will participate.
With March being a busy month for the game at school level, hopefully there will be enough referees around to assist to officiate the tournaments in Kuching and Samarahan.
In Miri and Sibu, this problem is not that acute as with three or four schools in the two divisions, they have enough referees to handle the tournaments.
The main headache for the SRU’s referee convenor is a clash of dates of the two tournaments in Kuching and Samarahan but I have been in touch with the technical chairmen for Kuching and Samarahan regarding this matter, and they have both agreed to have their respective tournaments on separate dates to avoid any problem with referees’ delegating.
The other problem is the possibility of a few of these referees not available during the tournaments due to work or travel. This likely problem can be overcome if only all the teachers who attended the refereeing course in 2009 are available.
Hopefully the eight active referees will be available during the tournaments if the dates of the tournaments are known early.
SRU is planning to have coaching clinics for the schools before the first tournament kick-off in March.
The main reason for these coaching clinics is to try to level the playing field so that all the participating schools will have even chances of winning games.
To expect the rest of the schools in Kuching and Samarahan to match the top schools like Shoaw, Kolej Abdillah and Asajaya respectively after these coaching clinics is an impossible dream but what SRU intends to do during these clinics is to try to narrow the gap technically between the rest and these top schools.
What was observed over the last two years since the two coaching clinics in 2008 and 2009 was that most of the schools, apart from Shoaw, Kolej and Asajaya, are still technically naive. The players from these other schools still lack the basics of ball handling, tackling, scrummaging, rucking and mauling.
They do not know how to join the rucks and mauls, coming in from an offside position or outside the ‘gate’ and how to ruck an opponent off. In the mauls, they do not know what to do and how to channel the ball back, instead everyone joins in and starts to push and shove each other.
All these is rather dangerous and it may lead to unnecessary injuries that could be avoided if they know what they are supposed to do, and which their teachers are supposed to have coached them, after having attended the two courses.
But these clinics will only be successful if the schools join these clinics. These clinics are like a refresher course for the teachers especially and SRU is keen to find out the reasons for the lack of improvement of these schools from the teachers concerned. These are the technical aspects of the game that all players must know in order to enjoy the game and have a fair of winning. The tactical bit will be left to the individual teachers to sort out.
There will be another friendly game today scheduled for kick off at 4.30pm at the Song Kheng Hai ground along Padungan Road and everyone who is interested in running out for a game are most welcome to turn up at the field before 4.30 pm. Jumpers for the game will be provided by the Club, so any interested party just need to bring along their own pair of shorts, stockings and boots.
