The Lunar New Year festive goodies were well and truly burnt off this weekend, as the heat and intensity picked up as the competition restarted after a short break. The World First Premiership Match of the Week kicked off the weekend, with Bucks XV playing in its successive Friday night game. They were up against the World First Lions who were looking a little light on the bench and gave opportunities to a host of young promising players that night.
From the start though, Bucks were up and firing, and dominated both possession and territory as they virtually camped in the Lions half for the first 10mins of the game. It was poor finishing by Bucks that let them down in the end. Bucks also were featuring a young side and both acquitted themselves well in the opening exchanges and showed their dominance as the game wore on. It needs to be a more polished performance when they face Bedok Kings this weekend as both teams are just a point way from each other in the standings.
Against Wanderers, Bedok were blown away by the pace of the Wanderers back division, and they conceded four tries in 20mins in their World First Premiership match. Wanderers all but closed the door at halftime as they went into the break 49 – 0. The sheer speed being dictated by standout scrumhalf Damien Hoo of Wanderers was no match for a Bedok side that had loads of experience. The loss of Jon Lee early was a factor, but they clearly were unable to handle the heat Wanderers had in store for them. Bedok are looking to entrench their top 4 position and want to come out firing against Bucks this weekend. Key for Bedok is to lay a platform for their damaging runners.
Wanderers lead the league table and will face Saints RFC in this week’s match of the week which promises to be free flowing by both sides. Saints opened their game against SCC 1st XV with the best possible start, with 2 tries and a brace of penalties. The Saints were in a competitive mood being led by National player Mhd Ashraff and the evergreen Daniel Thiam. SCC’s David Griffin is equally ever green and it was the battle of the experienced stand offs in the first 20mins. SCC came back from the early shaky start through the impressive play of Ben Turner. In the end, SCC dominated their set pieces and came out 66-15 winners. Saints will need to regroup and still stand a chance to make the semi finals if they can manage a couple more wins. Wanderers this week for them will be a daunting chance, but this club has stepped up at each turn making this match of the week one to watch.
SCC 1st XV seem to have their season back on track, and will look to further their winning streak against the World First Lions in week 5. The composition of the lions is a week on week proposition, but with national places at stake, be sure that the SCC 1st will be gunning for nothing less than a win.
In the World First Challenge Cup, the SCC Tankards moved back up to second after a close game against Oldham. The 27 – 12 score line began early for SCC as they raced to a 20 – 0 lead into the half. Rampaging charges for evergreen centre Hiarul Naim was the source of the points for the Tankards and Oldham had seemed to leave their firepower for the second half. Blandon tan, last seen in national colours at last year’s South East Asia Games, came on in the second half and made some bone crunching hits. The Tankards held on for the win, and look a good bet to reach the Semi Finals.
Wanderers 2XV ran amok against the Gaulois and look strong to finish top of the table. The top 4 competition in the Semi finals is going to be an interesting proposition and it will be seen if they can go undefeated this week.
Week 5 Fixtures
World First Premiership
19th Feb
WANDERERS 1XV v SAINTS CCAB 7.30PM
20th Feb
BEDOK KINGS 1XV v BUCKS 1XV TURF CITY A 5PM
SCC v WORLD FIRST LIONS PADANG 5PM
World First Challenge Cup
WANDERERS 3XV v WANDERERS 2XV TURF CITY B 1.30PM
BUCKS 2XV v BEDOK KINGS 2XV TURF CITY B 3PM
SCC LIONS v SCC GROWLERS PADANG 1PM
SCC TANKARDS v GAULOIS PADANG 3PM
SRU National Women’s League
NTU v BUCKS TURF CITY A 2PM
BLACKS v SKYLLAS TURF CITY A 3.45PM
Women’s Development League
SKYLLAS 1 v NTU/NUS TURF CITY A 1.30PM
SKYLLAS 2 v BLACKS 1 TURF CITY A 3.15PM
