IRAUG top try scorer - Lionel Kong

He is a man of many talents. a Dean's Lister, SSU president, who excels in badminton, soccer and was even the National Inter-School Champion in Javelin! A few years back, no one would have thought of Lionel Kong to be a rugby player. In fact, many critics expressed that he should only stick to games that will not risk him destroying his pretty-boy face.

However, up in Perth, Lionel Kong made his mark and silenced all his critics. He was the team's top try scorer with 4 tries and was evidently the man with the wheels to burn. His funky hair-do also made him a popular figure among the supporters and players, some liken him to look like a 'Samurai', while others called him "Hiro Nakamura" (the character from the TV series Heroes)

Off the rugby field, Lionel Kong was often mistaken to be part of the SMU tennis team, who went up to Perth together with the rugby team. The mistake was not because he showed much talent in tennis, but because he simply LOOKED like he was part of the girls' tennis team.

While the management at SMUrugby tried to clear his name and proved that he was everything else, but a girl. (and that he was solely representing the men's rugby team) The paparazzi caught the latter together with his socialite room-mate, Alex Chew getting intimate, causing more headaches for the management.

Said a SMUrugby spokesperson,

"Its becoming a growing concern in our team, as we have been seeing more and more of our players taking to such a 'trend of behavior'.We are not sure what can we do about it, but we hope to 'straighten' things out soon before it gets worst!"

The photo of both Alex Chew and Lionel Kong has caught the attention of a particular post-card company and has ever since used their photo as a Christmas Postcard this year. This exclusive postcard is available in all bookstores now.

Photos courtesy of Lim Wei Ming, our official rugby photographer for the tour.

Christmas Countdown with our 12

With 12 days to Christmas, we at SMUrugby news will be providing you 12 different post each day as a countdown to Christmas. The post will feature highlights from the recently concluded tour to Perth and provide a possible shaming or complimenting story of each of the 12 players that were on tour. Whatever story it may be, it was memorable to all who were present and contributed to making this a successful and memorable tour.

#1 Alexander Lincoln Chew (Alex Chew)

Alex Chew had a stormer of a tournament. The latter clocked up the most amount of play time throughout the tournament and was probably on the field for every minute of it...not till he 'knocked-out' after chasing back to make a cover tackle and was sent rolling around in his own try area. After a couple of tossing and turning, socialite Chew gave in to the 'vomit-monster' and allowed the flood gates to open. However, someone didn't tell him that one needs to have his mouth facing ground wards rather than skywards. This lack of information, eventually lead to the star performer puking and swallowing his own debris all at the same time - certainly not showing a clear understanding on the laws of gravity.

While Alex Chew will probably be remembered for his diligent cover tackles and non-stop running all over the field. His 11 other team-mates will remember him most for a particular inspirational speech before the team's first game of the tournament against ECU.

As the team were all psyched up and in a team huddle, Alex Chew was seen looking nervous and was down on one knee as he delivered his inspirational speech to counteract the jitters, "We got to give our opponents no respect! We got to go out there play to our pattern and let it FLOWwww (ahhhh)...."

Apparently, he meant more than one kind of flow and certainly resulted in the psyched up SMU team, biting their lips and tongues in the huddle, as he disseminated more than just his speech but his 'showers of blessing', thankfully to the ground and not to the sky this time.

The player got himself into further trouble with the laws of gravity, as he was caught walking around with his pants down during the closing ceremony, causing quite a stir among most of the male audience who were present.

The player was heavily fined by the SMU Rugby Players' Association later that night for both acts of misconduct.

Player Profile: Alexander Lincoln Chew

Age: 22

Position: Winger/Centre/Scrumhalf

Tri-Universities Rugby Championships to kick off in January 08

It's official. The Tri-Universities Rugby Championships is set to take place in January, with the opening match set to feature SMU taking on the Boon Lay Warriors, NTU.

The tournament is set to be played in a Home and Away format, with teams playing each team twice. Today, the 3 team captains from SMU, NUS and NTU were spotted at Holland Village, having a discussion and agreement on the format of the tournament.

The meeting had been arranged by the hosting team, SMU and was coordinated by SMU's captain, Amos Siow. NTU's skipper Tze "cat walker' Shien (picture extreme left), was accompanied by team advisor "undroppable" Qing Soh (photo left) for the meeting. While NUS was solely represented by team captain, Shafiq Zulazmi (photo right).

There were some disputes over the arrangement of some of the fixtures, in particular the clash between both NUS vs NTU, as their match was set to coincide with the Chinese New Year holidays. But both sides, were amiable towards each other and easily came to an agreement to an alternative date.

There isn't much time left for all 3 teams to prepare for this tournament, but with the competition among the teams to be equally matched, fans can expect this year's Tri-Universities to be a real cracker!

News Updates:

NUS has confirmed the likes of Anil Singh, Andrew Lee, Thomas Zhang and Jonathan Chen to be playing their final tournament for NUS.

While NTU has also confirmed that former Captain, Daniel "Potato" Thiam will be set to play for his Boon Lay Warriors.

SMU will be likely to face problems with the absence of key players like Lionel Poh, Daniel Marc, Alex Ong and Justin Lum who are either out through injury or set to be going on overseas exchange.

Boys back, but WAGS no where to be seen!

The squad of 12, finally arrived back in Singapore early yesterday morning. While the boys strolled out from the arrival hall with eager anticipation to see their loved ones again, most of the boys were left disappointed to find only their respective private chauffeurs waiting, except for forward Lim Wei Ming. Noticeably, there was only 1 representative from the SMUrugby Wives And Girlfriends(WAGs) who was seen at the arrival hall welcoming back the team from Perth.

The recent poor turn out from the WAGS for both the departure and arrival of the boys has sparked off top SMUrugby tabloid magazine "Rumor has it" from making various speculation of the welfare and love life of some of the players at SMUrugby. One player who declined to be named expressed his disappointment with the SMUrugby WAGS,

"We(SMUrugby players) fetch in the big pay-cheques, work hard to get our bodies in shape for them..the least they could do was show up in public in full force and show their support for us"

All WAGS when contacted by the press declined to comment.

SMUrugby misses out on the bronze

In a very closely fought battle in the league standing for the IRAUG 7s. SMUrugby faced a pressurizing task to win or draw their last group game against University of Western Australia (UWA) or exit from the tournament.

The boys were in a relax mood as they got ready to face the host and perhaps, even more relax when they realize their opponents were no where in sight during the time of kick-off. A possible forfeit of the game was on the cards, but UWA's players started to stroll in just as the game was to be awarded to SMU. But, after much discussion and after being 20mins late from the kickoff, the match eventually took place with SMU taking on a depleted UWA side, who only had 6 players on the field.

SMU vs UWA

Even with a numerical advantage on the field, the SMU boys were unable to stamp their authority on the host. The host were the first to draw first blood, taking an early lead with an unconverted try, to bring the score to 0-5. This cause a bit of panic among the City boys as they attempted to settle their nerves and make use of the extra man. Eventually a quick break just before half time from forward Vicknesh Sellutharai brought the score levelled, 5-5. The conversion by Amos Siow was unsuccessful.

In the second half, the City boys were not contented with sitting back for a draw in the game and piled on the pressure on UWA. Pressure soon turn to points when substitute and old guard, Chong Wei Nurn once again bulldozed his way to the try line to score, bringing the score to 10-5. The conversion was once again unsuccessful.

The rest of the game was evenly matched as both teams made breaks, but failed to put their respective chances away. The lack of clinical finishing by the SMU team proved costly as UWA scored a last minute try to equalize 10-10. With the conversion to be taken, a successful conversion would defeat the SMU boys. But the angle and distance was shown to be out of reach for the UWA's kicker as it fell short and was off-target.

The final score was 10-10 and was enough to send the City boys into the 3rd/4th Playoffs.

3rd/4th Playoff: SMU vs Curtin University

In a repeat fixture, Curtin University was all out for revenge in the playoff for the bronze medal. With the 3rd/4th play-offs taking place 30mins after the game against UWA. Players such as, Lionel Poh, Alex Ong and Lionel Kong were unable to recover in time for the game and were not featured in the starting line up. In addition, the tournament organizers extended the game play for the finals, imposing 10 minute halves from the original 7 minute halves.

The SMU team was visibly tired during the warm-up. On the other hand, Curtin who had ample rest from their previous group game were fresh and were quick to capitalized on the sluggish SMU side romping to 3 early tries in the first half with SMU having no reply for the energized Curtin.

In the process, SMU lost Amos Siow through a concussion in the first half when a break from a pass from Sherman Yeo, was quickly closed down by the covering defense that saw him taking a knock on the head and needing to be substituted at half time.

With the dreams of a bronze medal slipping away, changes needed to be made quickly to the team. Substitutes Lionel Poh, Alex Ong and Lim Wei Ming all came on and made an impact immediately. Tries from Lionel Poh, Alex Chew and Chong Wei Nurn spurred a fight back against Curtin. But it all provided too little too late, as Curtin turned on the style and hammered another 3 more tries in the closing minutes to sink the hearts of the City boys. The final score was 17-36.

The boys from SMU finished 4th out of 6 teams in the IRAUG 7s. Although the boys were clearly disappointed, a slightly drowsy SMUrugby President, Amos Siow had more than his fair share of words on the tour,

"The boys have worked very hard to get this far in the tournament. To come here (Perth) to win a game and play some good rugby has been no easy task. Being the only Asian team and competing against 5 other top Australian Universities, 4th is certainly a position that we are not to be ashamed about. If only, we won our games against UWA and Murdoch University, things could have possibly resulted in us finishing a 2nd."

On the whole, the trip has been a huge success in many ways, all players have benefited from the experience and have bonded over the past 10 days. The boys will be looking forward sharing their experience with their fellow-team mates and will get ready to compete in the upcoming Tri-Universities Championships in Mid Jan.

The squad of 12 are due to return on Monday, 10th December at 7.15am.

Flight details:
10th Dec - Perth to Singapore (SQ 216)
Departure/Arrival: 0255/0710

Updates:
The SMU tennis boys and girls both finished 2nd in the respective tournament. Congratulations!

SMUrugby registers first ever overseas victory!

Today, SMUrugby made history of their own, registering their first ever overseas victory. The City Boys, swept aside Curtin University in clinical fashion, finishing the game 19-0.

SMU vs Curtin University

Curtin University had some outstanding players, who had recently competed with their respective clubs in last month's Singapore Cricket Club 7s (SCC 7s). However, this didn't deter the City Boys from recording their first win of the tournament.

The game started off with SMU receiving the kick-off and saw them make good use of the possession. Showing composure and confidence to pass the ball around the park and attack gabs at will. The side was soon rewarded when scrumhalf Alex Chew picked the ball from the ruck and attacked the blindside together with Captain Lionel Poh in support. The break resulted in centre Amos Siow opening the accounts for SMU with a try under the post. The try was converted by Amos and the scoreline 7-0.

Curtin appeared shell-shocked and started to pile on the pressure for the rest of the half. But SMU stood their ground and defended well against their Australian opponents.

In the second half, the City boys, were determined to shut the game down and put Curtin University away and came out from the break with a try through an assist from Captain Poh to Lionel Kong to score under the post - bringing Lionel Kong's personal tournament try-scoring tally to 4. The try was converted and the score was extended to 14-0. Possession of the ball was mainly SMU's and the Singapore University made multiple breaks, constantly putting Curtin on the back foot.

The game was finally sealed by the City boys, when Chong Wei Nurn powered through for a try from the base of the ruck to bring the score to 19-0, ensuring SMU's first ever overseas victory.

The boys were ecstatic after the game. When interview about the game, President of SMUrugby team, Amos Siow said, "This victory meant a lot to us and the boys have been working hard for this victory!"

However, the joys from recording the first victory of the tournament was short-lived when they faced UNDA in their second game of the day

SMU vs UNDA

UNDA boasted several state players and were ranked the top team going into this tournament. They were the recent runners-up in the Australia University Games and have been dominating the whole IRAUG tournament and were sitting on top of the table with maximum points.

The match against UNDA proved too much for the SMU side, smashing the short-lived high spirits of the boys and trouncing them 41-0. The boys had made a couple of breaks in the game, but UNDA were simply too good for them.

While the City boys left the field clearly disappointed, they take heart that they lost to a much better team and will be looking forward eagerly to their game against the host team, University of Western Australia (UWA).

Injuries
While there has been no major injuries to any of the players. Another knock sustained to Lorenzo Escano's head has possibly put him out of action for the rest of the tournament, said Captain Poh, "We do not wish to aggravate his condition and we take any head injuries sustained to our players seriously."

The boys will have the whole day off tomorrow.

Rest Day for City Boys

Today, the City Boys had the chance to take the day off to recover from the first day's matches. The boys spent the day doing a light training session in the morning - playing American Football and Soccer. After the session, the boys went down to the tennis courts to support the SMU's Tennis Team (Boys & Girls). The Tennis boys romped to victory winning 4-1, while the girls team succumbed to defeat 1-4. The rest of the day was free and easy for the team and the team spent the afternoon doing a bit of shopping before heading back to the apartment for an early night's rest.

Tomorrow the team will face Curtin University(CURT) and University of Notre Dame (UNDA) and will hope to register their first overseas win in history.