Singapore national rugby union team

Rugby team
country =Singapore


imagesize= 75px
union = Singapore Rugby Union
coach = Tom Browne and Phil Greening
captain = Rong Jing Xiang
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top scorer =
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first = Malaysia 13 - 26 Singapore
(1972-11-06)
bigwin = Singapore 85 - 0 India
(1998-10-26)
bigloss = Hong Kong 164 - 13 Singapore
(1994-10-27)The Singapore national rugby union team represents Singapore in international rugby union. They have yet to make their debut at the Rugby World Cup, though since the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Singapore have been participating in qualification competitions.

History

Singapore first tried to qualify for a World Cup for the 1995 tournament in South Africa, taking part in the Asia qualifiers. Singapore played out of Group B in Round 1, though they lost their three fixtures and did not advance to Round 2. Singapore attempted to qualify for the 1999 Rugby World Cup in Wales also; playing in Round 1 of Asia, but losing both of their fixtures against Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Singapore finished second in the final standings of Pool A of Round 1 in attempting to qualify for the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia, and did not advance to Round 2. They finished second in their group in qualification for the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France as well, losing one match and winning one.

Singapore's first rugby national team was started in 1971, when an expat team of NZ & British servicemen and 2 Asians were assembled to play against a visiting All England team at the Jalan Besar stadium. The same day also saw the birth of the Under-23 Singapore national team when it played a friendly against Malaysia in a curtain raiser match to the England game. The Under-23 team was made up of all national local boys from the Armed forces, Police force, local clubs and schools. This was indeed the birth of Singapore Rugby. In 1972 Singapore Rugby Union under the presidency of ASP Niaz Mohd Shah took part in the 3rd Asian Rugby Union Tournament held in HK. The team was represented by full local national boys from the various clubs in Singapore. The 1972 team was led by captain, Leow Kim Liat who played at fly-half and coached by Englishman, Mike Jeffries from the SCC. Singapore finished a credible 4th placing in that tournament behind Japan, S Korea and Thailand. Singapore rugby progressed on and Singapore participated in the 1975 SEAP (South East Asian Peninsular Games) held in BKK, where only 3 countries took part then. Unfortunately Singapore lost to both Thailand and Malaysia, emerged 3rd with a bronze medal. In 1977 Singapore Rugby team took part in the SEA Games held in KL, Malaysia and once again there were the same 3 countries (Thailand, Malaysia & Singapore) as in 1975 taking part. This time round Singapore went one step better than their 1975 performance by winning the silver medal after beating hosts Malaysia, but losing to Thailand in a rain sodden finals match. In 1978, Singapore rugby achieved its best ever performance in their history annals under Mr Howard Cashin's presidency and coach Mr Natahar Bava. Singapore won a historic MRU Cup victory in the annual MRU (M'sian Rugby Union) tournament after 44 years of partcipation under the label of Singapore Civilians which was actually the national team made up of local boys from the 1977 SEA Games squad. The Singapore team beat the RNZIR (Royal New Zealand Infantry Battalion) Singapore based team in the semi-finals on the way to the finals and that game was termed as the "epic final" in the eyes of all true rugby followers. Later that same year Singapore took part in the 6th Asian Rugby tournament again held in KL and emerged with their best ever result to this day with a 3rd placing behind powerhouse, Japan and S Korea when they beat Thailand in a cliff hanger 16-15 3rd placing game. This was the best showing ever by an all local Singaporean team! The 1978 team was led by ASP Jarmal Singh of the Police Force as the captain. This was the highest ranking Singapore had ever achieved in Asia to this present day. For its efforts and achievements SNOC awarded Singapore Rugby with the Sportsman of the Year 1978 award to pack leader, Song Koon Poh, Coach of the year to Natahar Bava and the entire 1978 team as the Sports Team of the year. This was a "Grand Slam" sweep of all 3 major awards in the sports accolades except for the Sportswoman award. The Singapore team went on to repeat another MRU Cup triumph under coach Natahar Bava in 1982, but 1978 was indeed the year Singapore achieved rugby history by being 3rd in Asia first time ever and winning the MRU Cup after 44 years.

ee also

* 2003 Rugby World Cup - Asia qualification
* 2007 Rugby World Cup - Asia qualification

External links

* [http://www.sru.org.sg/ Singapore Rugby Union]
* [http://www.irb.com/en/Home/MemberUnionHomePage?UnionID=89 Singapore] on IRB.com
* [http://rugbydata.com/singapore Singapore] on rugbydata.com