Home - Sports - Rugby with Jim Lee - MSS Sarawak under 18 kicks off after Chinese New Year
MSS Sarawak under 18 kicks off after Chinese New Year
Posted on January 28, 2012, Saturday
I hope everyone had a good Chinese new year break and looking forward to the year of the dragon.
It is now confirmed that the MSS Sarawak U-18 inter-school tournaments for Kuching and Samarahan will be held in late March. In Kuching, it will involve 6 schools; the organiser/host, SMK Asajaya, SMK Asajaya 2, SMK Muara Tuang, SMK Wira Penrissen, SMK Taee and SMK Tebedu in 2 pools of 3 schools each.
The tournament in Samarahan will be over 2 days and will start 2 days after the start in Kuching with the U-15 10’s held simultaneously on the same dates as it involves the same schools.
Defending champion Kolej DPAH Abdillah plays host in Kuching and the 6-days tournament will be held at the Song Kheng Hai ground while the U-15 10’s is organised and hosted by SMKA Sheikh Hj. Othman Abdul Wahab (SHOAW).
With 6 weeks to the tournaments, this gives ample time for the proposed coaching clinics to be held for the schools that are participating.
Hopefully with these clinics the tournaments will see better matches rather than the usual fare of the few top schools running away with the honours, leaving the rest to fight it out for the crumbs. After more than a decade of the game being played in the schools, here I’m talking about Kuching, it is high time that the other schools step to the fore and stake a claim for the honours.
Since the first tournament was played in 2000, the title has been won by just 2 schools, SHOAW and Kolej, who broke SHOAW’s monopoly last year in both U-15 and U-18 categories. Will Kolej be able to hold onto their mantle this year or will SHOAW reclaim the crown? Who will break Asajaya’s monopoly in Samarahan? Their closest challenger has been Wira Penrissen but the latter’s batch of senior players have almost all finished their studies, so unless they have new undiscovered players, it looks likely that Asajaya will be doing what SHOAW did in Kuching for another year.
What does 2012 hold in store for the game at the club level? At the moment, there are 4 active clubs playing in the state, KRFC, Sibu DRU, Bintulu RC and Miri DRU. Sibu has been ruling the roost since ’98, winning practically every tournament locally that they participated in while the others have been playing catch up.
KRFC and Miri have come close over the last 2 years but have yet to make that step up to give Sibu a good fight. They have held their own in the first half of matches but invariably collapse in the second half when facing Sibu and to date seem unable to find the wherewithal to prise Sibu’s grip on local tournaments.
The head to head between KRFC and Miri have been about even, with one side in the ascendancy one year, and the other the next.
A number of the players from Miri even play in the league in Brunei as they work in Brunei yet these 2 former sides do not seem to be able to do close the gap to Sibu.
Both these 2 sides have enough players on their rosters to put out 2 sides each, the Rinos and Hornbills in Miri, Black Catz and Gold Catz for KRFC for tournaments and the Guinness league respectively, so what appears to be holding them back from challenging Sibu?
Bintulu RC is a newly minted side, coming into being in 2009 and they have yet to really make their mark on the local scene as yet. Their problem is that they are the only side in Bintulu and don’t have much chance to play regularly, although I understand they do play amongst themselves and the UPM players. To get games, they need to either drive to Miri or Sibu for friendly games and these will only be feasible if and when they can get their players together for the weekends. Since a number of them work in the O & G industry, and off shore, it is quite difficult for them to sort themselves out for these weekend trips.
Sibu, Bintulu and Miri are the only clubs in their respective divisions playing the game so it is always a problem of getting enough players together on a Saturday for games.
But in Kuching, there are, besides KRFC, UNIMAS, UiTM and Kuching politeknik for friendlies but these does not take place too often. The latter 3 are tertiary institutional sides with a number of players also members of KRFC and their problem is the educational workload of their players. The armed forces do have players but the different units do not have anyone to organise the players into a side to play games as has been witnessed by the last minute withdrawals of the armed forces side from the Guinness league over the last 2 years.
There is another side in Kuching, the SHOAW Old Boys, a side made up of alumni of SHOAW and other schools but they do not get together too often and have not been invited to play in the Guinness league, which is a mystery. The RMAF and Police, former powerhouses in local rugby, are non-existent anymore.
Until someone who is interested in the game is put in charge of these latter 3 sides, KRFC will remain the only active side in Kuching, without getting any hard games under their belts to prepare their players for the rigours of facing and winning against Sibu for the foreseeable future.
Although there is the Guinness league which has been running for the past 3 years, in Kuching for the players to get games of competitive nature, it has yet to bear fruit in giving the players, especially from KRFC, to gain experience.
So for 2012, Sibu will predictably again rule the roost when it comes to tournaments locally at the club.
There will be another friendly game today scheduled for kick off at 4.30 pm at the Song Kheng Hai ground along Padungan Road and anyone 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 Club, so any interested party just need to bring along their own pair of shorts, stockings and boots.
