Sarawak players join in celebrations with Cup champions Western Heights High School from Australia. — Photo courtesy of Zulkaranainhisham Sarbini
KUCHING: Sarawak had a decent outing in the 13th Cobra Schools 10s Rugby Championship at Politeknik Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah in Shah Alam from April 15-17.
They entered the Bowl final only to lose 5-12 to Johor.
“We had our ups and downs but I believe at the end of the day Sarawak, whom I dubbed as “The Brave Hearts”, did brilliantly to secure again, like in 2015, a Bowl final berth only to lose to highly favourites Johor where majority of their players come from the Cup champions of the MSSM-Milo National U15 Tournament held in Bandar Penawar last year.
“With the objective and target of getting a better ranking after the group stages … and go from there, Sarawak did just that after finishing the preliminary stage in Group D,” said coach Zulkaranainhisham Sarbini.
In the first match, Sarawak outplayed a Pahang side depleted of key players 26-0.
The second group match was the toughest to Sarawak as they took on Perak B, one of the tournament’s top contenders. Sarawak gave a good fight especially in the second half, after trailing 0-15 at half-time. They managed to control the second half and scored an unconverted try. Final score Sarawak 5 Perak B 15.
With one win and one loss, Sarawak had to play well in the last group match against KCC from Australia which they won 19-0.
They were ranked eighth after Perak B, Selangor, Southern Lion, SSTMI, WKL, Western Heights and Negeri Sembilan out of the 24 teams in the tournament.
Sarawak needed to beat Kelantan in the second round to move into the Cup/Plate quarterfinals.
Unfortunately, they played their worst match in the tournament and lost 0-10 to Kelantan.
With the defeat, Sarawak dropped to Bowl quarterfinals.
“Although frustrated for not being able to sustain our eighth ranking, We went all the way to reach the Bowl final again for the second consecutive time.”
In the Bowl quarterfinals, Sarawak beat Taiwan 12-5 before thumping Terengganu 19-0 to book their final berth.
The Cup champions were Western Heights High School of Australia who beat Perak B 25-0, Plate champions Selangor who edged Southern Lions 5-0, Spoon champions MRSM who defeated Putrajaya 8-0 and Saucer champions Kolbe Catholic College who beat Sabah 7-0.