Rugby tournament in memory of Br Columba

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Song (fourth right) hands over the Brother Columba Memorial Cup to Morshidi as Louis (second left) and other SRU committee members look on.

Brother Columba

KUCHING: Eleven teams have confirmed that they will enter the Song Kheng Hai Rugby Ground here from Oct 28-29 to fight for the right to lift the inaugural Brother Columba Cup.

The Under-20 Sevens tournament will see action from Saint Development Team A and B, KRFC, Ros Kalas, Piranhas, Wolfpack A and B, WORC A and B, GB 13 and UiTM.

In a simple ceremony at State Leadership Institute, old Yayasan Sarawak building yesterday, Sarawak Rugby Union president Richard Song Swee Jin, accompanied by deputy president Louis Jarau and committee members, handed over the challenge trophy to SRU patron State Secretary Tan Sri Datuk Amar Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani.

Brother Columba, who passed away in Ireland last year, was principal of St Joseph’s School in Kuching from 1970 to 1987. He led the school during a golden era of academic, co-curricular and sporting excellence.

The sports-loving La Salle Brother was highly instrumental in nurturing a generation of students actively engaged in many sports.

Among the many distinct memories of his time was the school’s supremacy in inter-school rugby including its titanic clashes with Dragon School and St Patrick’s at the Song Kheng Hai Ground.

Alumni of St Joseph’s from that period included Morshidi and Song, both of whom represented the school in rugby, as well as Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.

Morshidi will declare open the competition while Karim will close the tournament which is aimed at selecting players for the Sarawak Sukma XIX rugby squad.