Day 1 & 2 of IRAUG

The City Boys have arrived at Perth and are reported to be safe and sound. The boys had an early visit to the match field upon arrival and even had a 1.5hours training session. The rugby team who is up together with the SMU tennis team, spent that 1.5 hours getting used to the UNBELIEVABLE nice field (that you will never get in Singapore) and sorted out some game plays

Today, the team kicked off the opening ceremony with games against EDU and MDU. Playing the games at 2pm and 3pm. (Perth time respectively)

SMU vs ECU

The first game proved to be a tough one as the boys attempted to blow off the pre-tournament jitters and conceded a very early try in the 1st min. ECU continued to put pressure on the City Boys and played to their strengths of adopting a more direct style of play, attempting to out muscle the evidently smaller SMU boys. Before half time, ECU put in a further 2 tries to make the score 0-19

However, the City boys had never showed a sign of backing down from the challenge as Lorenzo Escano made some good darting runs, which almost resulted in tries, if not for last ditch tackles by the panicky ECU side. The latter, then got concussed in the process of one of his runs and had to be substituted by Lionel Kong.

There were many chances for the City boys to crawl back into the game and the chances soon turn into points. Lionel Poh, made a break and made an cross field kick, which saw Amos Siow ground the ball for a well earned try. Upon scoring the try, Amos had to be substituted as well, as he suffered from heat exhaustion and could not continue for the rest of the day's matches.

Another try came for the City Boys, which drew the margin of the score closer. A brilliant off-load from Vicknesh, putting Sherman Yeo into a gap, bringing the score to 10-19. However, the City Boys' comeback effort was made futile, when ECU overpowered the SMU boys to seal the game with a rather imposing score of 10-24.

SMU vs MDU

With Lorenzo Escano and Amos Siow absent from the line up. The City Boys had to settle with fielding 3 subs from a possible 5. But that didn't stop them from dominating the Australian side. The City boys, made an early mistake to concede a try to MDU. But came back firing on all cylinders when speedster Lionel Kong reigned in a hat-trick of tries to put the score at 17-5.

However, the blistering 40 degree heat proved too much for the boys and fatigue started to set in and allowed their opponents to creep right back into the game levelling the score in the 2nd half at 17-17. A last minute injury time try by MDU, saw the SMU side's hope of recording their first overseas victory go up in smokes. MDU won the game 17-22.

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At the end of the day, the boys were seen to be clearly disappointed but could take heart that they have caused a stir among their competitors, sending a strong message - that the Singapore side is certainly no pushovers.

The boys will have a day of rest tomorrow, with a light training session in the morning and will have another 2 games on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Lorenzo Escano and Amos Siow are reported to be fit to play for both matches and will be turning up for training tomorrow.

Updates:
SMU tennis team(boys and girls) romped to victory winning their matches 3-2 and 5-0 respectively.

For the latest updates on scores you can visit http://www.unigames.com.au/ladder.asp?comp=642&OrgID=1