The ALL-ACS Rugby Final

This year is the 125th Anniversary of ACS and Old Boys,
students, parents, teachers and supporters had the unexpected
bonus of an all-ACS Rugby Final as part of the celebrations!

On 18 August at the Republic Polytechnic, ACS (Independent) beat brother school ACS (Barker Road) 6-0 to win the National C Division Rugby Championship.

There was initially little expectation of an all-ACS final with favourites St Andrew's Secondary standing in the way of ACS (Barker Road) in the semi-finals. However, ACS (Barker Road) sensationally beat the Saints 20-8 in a superb game of attacking rugby. The win all the more remarkable because St Andrew's had finished the regular season with an unbeaten 7-0 win-loss record. ACS (Barker Road), in contrast, had finished with a 4-3 win-loss record to finish fourth in the eight-team first round league to secure the last semi-final spot.

For ACS (Independent), this win completed a grand slam of titles, after having won the A and B Division championships earlier this year. ACS (Independent) last won a rugby “Grand Slam” in 2008 and this is the seventh grand slam in the school’s history.

The kick-off was preceded by a joint prayer session involving both teams, led by Mr Richard Seow, Chairman of the ACS Board of Governors, who was joined on the field by Mr Winston Hodge, Principal of ACS (Independent), Mr Peter Tan, Principal of ACS (Barker Road) and Mr Cheo Chai Hong, Vice President of the ACSOBA. Mr Seow exhorted all the players to do their best for themselves, their teammates, their schools and for God, and to exercise the highest standards of sportsmanship and fair play that ACS stands for. He reminded all that everyone was already a winner, this being an all-ACS final.

The match itself was nowhere close to the 2 semi-final matches in terms of excitement but had ample action to keep the crowd rooting for their respective teams.

Two well taken first-half penalties by scrumhalf Joshua Goh gave Independent a 6-0 lead at half-time as Barker Road failed to get close to their opponents’ try line, breaching the Independent 22m line only once in the half. However, with such a slim lead, the game was far from over. Independent could not put the game away when both Joshua Goh and fullback Michael Yee missed one penalty each in the 2nd half. One of those penalties was taken right in front of the posts from just outside the 22m line.

Barker Road, after surviving a period of sustained Independent pressure, then made the spectators stand up when out-centre Rafi Rosli took a pass near the centre of the field and ran almost the whole Independent half before getting stopped just shy of the try line. That signalled a start of sustained Barker Road pressure, with forward Kamen Tang almost crossing the try line twice. Both times, Independent stood their ground and held firm.

It was then the turn of Independent, with winger Jeremy Toh and then Michael Yee coming close to scoring as they lit up the game with exciting runs down the left flank. Barker Road stopped both runs with crunching tackles but failed to mount any serious counter attacks from deep inside their own territory as time ran out.

At the final whistle, the Independent boys were elated whilst their Barker Road brothers cried after failing to win their school's first rugby title.

“Being here after finishing fourth in the league is an achievement for the team,” said a proud Barker Road head coach Lincoln Tan.

“We had three opportunities to run it in the first half but didn’t. That’s why I told them to do so in the second half,” added Lincoln about the need to bring the pace of Rafi into the game.

Independent head coach Adrian Chong was very happy with his team’s effort.

“We played with more grit and determination. We had been shaky throughout the season,” reflected Adrian, who was comparing the victory with his team’s effort in the slim 22-21 win over St Joseph’s Institution in the semi-final.

“We played with belief more than at any time of the whole season. We gave away only two or three penalties the whole game.”

On coping with the threat of Rafi, Adrian said: “We were working with the centres to nullify Rafi. Our flankers, our number eight, were deployed to cover wherever he was standing.”

The two teams showed solidarity after the game by thanking the crowd of Old Boys, parents and supporters together and capped off the evening by singing the school anthem as OneACS!

 Les Tan