The Sarawak team all geared up for a fiesty challenge at the 13th Cobras School 10s Rugby Championship in Shah Alam.
KUCHING: Sarawak are looking forward to another great challenge in the 13th Cobra Schools 10s Rugby Championship at Politeknik Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah in Shah Alam from April 15-17.
Coach Zulkaranainhisham Sarbini said Sarawak, who had been competing in the second edition since 2005, are hoping to better its achievements. Sarawak were Cup semi-finalists in 2012, Spoon champions in 2014 and Bowl champions last year.
“Cobra 10s is never an easy tournament since it is at an international level, and with the high intensity level of matches for this age group. There are four international teams this year, two from Australia, and one each from Taiwan and New Zealand.
“We have to be at our best… although we only had three days of training for this Under-16 boys since everybody was involved in the recent MSSM Kuching U18 Inter School 15s,” he said.
Sarawak are drawn in Group D with Pahang, KCC and Perak B “Pahang are a good side and improving every time, Perak B are actually represented by Sekolah Tunku Abdul Rahman (STAR), Ipoh and are the favourite team in Group D and Kolbe Catholic College (KCC) from Taiwan are no pushovers,” said Zulkaranainhisham in summing up Sarawak’s opponents.
“We will try to improve our rankings and go from there in this year’s tournament. We will do our very best in the group stages first then go from there,” he added.
According to the coach, the players are selected from last year’s MSS Sarawak U15 Rugby 10s tournament where the top three placings were occupied by SMK Agama Sheikh Othman Wahab (Shoaw), MRSM Kuching and Kolej Datuk Patinggi Abdullah Haji Abdillah (Kolej Abdillah).
The players are Awang Ismail Awang Kamis, Muhd Ashamuddin Naim Aziz, Muhd Syukri Borhan, Muhd Arsyad Abdul Majid, Ameirul Aiman Supian, Awang Muhd Hafiz Awang Wainee, Azreenshah Ismail, Abdul Alif Adam and Nur Zikri Farhan Mohd Zailan (Shoaw), Ahmad Ramadhan Reduan, Mohd Hanif Sufian Hazman, Muhd Amir Musa, Tarry Ajian Lewat (MRSM Kuching) and Mohd Shahbarrin Abdul Rahim (Kolej Abdillah).
Accompanying the team are team manager Mohd Nafri Abdul Rahman who is the new Sarawak technical director for MSS Sarawak Rugby and physio Vincent Nelos Terim from MRSM Kuching.