SMUrugby President Sherman Speaks

As the President of SMU Rugby, I will first like to thank all the participating universities for making SUNIG 2008 such a huge success. SMU is honored to organize this inaugural tournament and we hope to see SUNIG 7s continue to be an annual event where all Singapore universities can come together and play fun and competitive rugby 7s.

I will also like to extent my gratitude to the following groups of people:

· Office of Student Life for providing us the financial funding and support for this event

· Our convener, Andrew Aaron Tam for personally coming onboard the organizing committee to oversee the planning and execution of SUNIG 2008
· Sporting conveners and captains of all four participating universities

· NUS for graciously letting us use their field for SUNIG 2008

· Supporters who came down to support all the participating teams

· Anybody who has helped us in one way or another

With regards to the incident involving foul play by one of my players, Bryan Ng, I will like to assure all parties involved that I will pursue this matter to the fullest of my capacity. Rugby is meant to be played in good spirit and sportsmanship and I and the school authorities will embark on a full investigation to find the truth behind this matter.

My school authorities and I have already told NUS that we will give them our fullest assistance and cooperation with regards to this incident we seek to find a resolution to this incident. On behalf of the SMU team, I sincerely apologized to the NUS team for whatever has happened out there in that fateful final and I hope that this incident will not strain the excellent relationship between both universities. To Raihan, David and Shafiq, I personally promise three of you I WILL NOT rest on my laurels with regards to this incident. I wish all of you a speedy recovery.

I hope that all of us can move on from this incident as the next event on the rugby calendar is the Asian University Games which will see the Combined Singapore Universities go up to Malaysia and pit themselves against the region’s best. Furthermore, the 15s season will kick off in February next year with Tri Unis and I eagerly look forward to all your support and participation in these two events.