Match Report: Touch Rugby Finals

Our school’s touch rugby girl’s team participated in the inaugural Nationals Inter School Touch Rugby championships at Turf City yesterday at 4.30 pm. Having been undefeated throughout the course of their season, the girls went into the game as outright favourites. Throughout the years, the touch rugby team has achieved stellar results in various touch rugby encounters such as the M1 Touch Rugby competition in which they have already won for 3 consecutive years. Undeniably, the team is both physically and mentally triumphant to give it their very best shot in today’s finals.

The team had to endure a punishing 2 consecutive games fixture in a single day against the likes of traditional powerhouses such as National Junior College (NJC) and Millenia Institute (MI) respectively. However, the morale of the team was well-boosted with the arrival of a substantial amount of supporters, including the school’s very own cheers ic and song ic, Ivan Ho and Yao Hui. Such strong support was clearly absent from the other teams present at the competition and was clearly indicative of the united school spirit the school boasts.

As the sun shone its intense ray onto the luscious greens of the turf city pitch, our girl’s team were hyped up for their first game against their biggest rival yet, NJC. The game was rather close at the start, with both teams forcing each other to commit several mistakes such as the dropping of the possession of the ball. However, as the game proceeded, the difference in class of both teams began to show as the team’s captain, Nicola Koh scored the first try around 10 minutes into the game.




As the NJC players began to show signs of fatigue, our players were simply outpacing and outplaying the opposing team. With the game progressing into the second half, the score gap started to widen, with vice-captain Kendra Tang doing her bid to help place the team onto the scoreboard by scoring 2 tries throughout the match. Nicola then further showed NJC why Hwa Chong was such a fearsome team by scoring another 2 tries. NJC then scored a late consolatory try but the results were clear to all, that the team has emerged victorious against NJC in this feisty encounter. 5-1 is the final score.



After a 30 minutes break, the team had to now pit themselves against MI. While the MI players were evidently more physically well-built, our players were determined to win this match to stake their claim as the rightful champions of touch rugby. With the cheers roaring from the spectators’ area, the team was fired up and raring to go. The second match paved the way for the younger J1 players such as Claudia Sng, Joleen Lee and Tay Xingxuan to have more playing time to allow time for over-exerted players in the first game to take sufficient rest.



For a long period in the first half, the score was at a stalemate. However, it was clearly evident that our players were engaging in a much more aggressive game play, most probably from the astute tactical genius of their coach, Karen. More notably, players such as Tan Ze Lei and Valerie Goh showed their pace and vision for the ball as they distinguished themselves from the MI players by outclassing them. Though MI showed glimpse of brilliance, the disciplined defence of Hwa Chong prevented them from keeping to their game plan and constantly disrupted the flow of their game.
Very soon, the first try came from the young uprising star of Hwa Chong touch rugby team, Joleen Lee. More signs of superiority came when both captains of the team, Kendra Tang and Nicola Koh scored 4 tries amongst them to further their lead to 5. Unfortunately, the team conceded a late try to MI before the final whistle signalled the end of the competition.

The girls team really showed their grit and determination by overcoming all odds to win both fixtures. The supporters also went into a state of frenzy as the coveted title was finally awarded to the deserving team.