Hoping for more thriving games in year of dragon

Posted on January 21, 2012, Saturday

A very happy and prosperous Chinese New Year to everyone in advance and let’s hope that the year of the dragon will see the standard of the game in the state move up, both at the schools and senior club levels.

I would like to see a more thriving game for this year, with more players joining the clubs in Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu and Miri, and hence an infusion of new faces. And also the other teams like those from Kuching Politeknik, Unimas, UiTM, Curtin University and Armed Forces can play more regularly throughout the year, instead of just during tournaments, and the league in Kuching.

The Mukah politeknik team are not getting enough exposure aside from tournaments during the year. They are the only team playing the game in the Mukah division, yet they have shown in their various appearances in the tournaments that they are quite a formidable team. Their only drawback is their lack of exposure, hence experience, because they do not get to play regularly against other teams. They can probably arrange for friendlies against their nearest neighbours, Sibu, and Bintulu but for this to happen, I am given to understand that they need to get the green light from their administrators before they can do anything.

For teams from the tertiary institutes, the main drawback is the current system in these places where sports is not the main priority, and even where sports are played, rugby is way, way down the list. So for those students in these institutes who have played the game during their school days, who want to play the game, and form a team, they do not get much support from the administrators of these institutes.

These students are pretty much left to their own devices to sort themselves out, from organising themselves into a team, training, looking for funds and arranging transport to tournaments. These institutes do have sports officers but oft times when calling up these places and looking for this person is an exercise in futility.

The other drawback is the turnover of the players as most of them will be in these institutes for two or three years before they either graduate or transfer to other institutes to further their studies. So this factor invariably means that teams from these institutes do not really get to put out good strong sides because they do not have someone in there to put in place a system of development and progress.

Kuching politeknik used to be a team that had promise but never realised that promise due to the above reasons but over the last two or three years, they have bucked that trend and made steady progress. All this is down to the fact that they have a lecturer who is a die-hard rugby aficionado and also a qualified coach and referee, Azirudin (Din).

Din, in tandem with another lecturer in Kuching politeknik, Adhar, have done a lot to put Kuching politeknik where they are now and Din and Adhar deserve kudos for their efforts and commitment to improving the team from Kuching politeknik.

This hard work, commitment and effort has borne fruit, with them winning the KRFC Song Thian Cheok Memorial 7’s last year, defeating RMAF Blackhawks in the final.

In Mukah, they have a student who played schools rugby and also for Miri, Mohd Fadzli (Gomeng), who is the driving force for their team. He is the one who sort out the team for training, and tournaments and when Fadzli leaves Mukah politeknik, who will take over the torch and lead the team?

In Unimas, there is Ben who is doing what Fadzli is doing in Mukah, and again like in Mukah politeknik, what would happen to Unimas team when Ben graduates? Both these two players got their start in schools, then stepped up to club rugby with Miri and when they continued their studies in their tertiary institutes, they took the initiative and started rugby teams.

They did everything on their own, using their knowledge, however limited, gleaned when playing in school and for their club, to organise their teammates and send out the teams. And they did reasonably well in tournaments, losing only to the more established clubs. What would happen to Mukah politeknik and Unimas when the day Fadzli and Ben finish their studies and graduate comes around?

UiTM currently has a sports officer who represented the state in schools’ tournaments and also in sukma, Awang Arshad (Khalid), and he has certainly done his bit to propel UiTM to the fore over the past year.

When UiTM had a new intake last year, a number of former Shoaw and Sukma players were accepted and these players together with Khalid have moved UiTM up the ladder in tournaments like the KRFC 7’s, the inter higher institutes of learning 10’s and Bintulu 10’s last year. Here again the question goes begging, what will happen to UiTM should Khalid move on to greener pastures in the future? I guess for teams like Kuching politeknik, Mukah politeknik, Unimas and UiTM, they will always be in a flux with their high turnover of playing resources, so unless there is a quantum change in the system in these places, the best that can be expected from them is the occasional shock win in tournaments but nothing long term.

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 4.30pm.

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