Tomorrow is marked as the biggest rugby tournament for all Universities this term, the Singapore Universities Games Rugby 7s will be held over the weekend for the second time in history. After being omitted from the previously established IVP games, which included polytechnics, the Singapore Universities Sports Council decided to hold their own competition, hence the birth of SUNIG few years ago.
During this weekend, we will see if defending champions SMU will be able to silence the critics and successfully defend their title like they have with the Tri Uni 15s tournament. They will be looking to complete the much prestigious double (7s & 15s title) to cement their place as the top university rugby team in Singapore again this year. The team has undergone many changes since the last tournament and has been constantly reminded that the loss of the former batch of senior players will be difficult to replace and emulate. In fact, this will be SMU's first official tournament without the players from the graduated 'Class of 09s'. While the pressure is on the new team, the team promises to deliver as Captain Derek Chan is upbeat about his chances of defending the 7s crown.
SMU will be looking to show off some of their new talents, with the likes of freshman speedster Daniel Kong, who will be looking to provide some prolific finishing and Benjamin Wai who has began to stake a serious claim for a first team place in the City boys. The team on paper looks impressive, with each player recording an average of 12.00 seconds for the 100m. (bearing in mind an outlier result of prop Sherman Yeo, who completes the century in about 30 seconds). The team is said to be made out of a list of speedsters and will certainly look to "gas & smash" their way through to the finals.
NUS on the other hand will be led out by Captain Firas, who will love to share the spoils and provide an upset for the defending champions. The NUS side will be looking rather "foreign", with almost 3-4 international exchange students making a first team appearance. They are speculated to be from either France, Canada, South Africa, NZ, Fiji, South Africa..... (YOU NAME IT THEY HAVE IT. well honestly, we are not too sure where they are from, but in any case, there are about 4 of them). In terms of the locals for the side, the team will feature a host of former Anglo Chinese School boys, like Shafiq Zulazmi, Justin Koh, Leow Wei Xiong and Loh Wei Liang. Another player who will also be featured in the side is Singapore Idol wannabe Ian Choo, who promises to sing some tunes during the tournament interval break.
Next, we have the Boon Lay Warriors, who once again are often an unknown force, only because they are located in the most obscure location in Singapore. However, not to be underestimated, the sides is going to be led out by Sidney Kumar who has recently burst into the National rugby scene in Singapore. He will be accompanied by the likes of talented rockstar-looking, Xue Ren Han, "SMU-snubber" Joel Leong and "Fake Ang moh" Peter Walker. The Warriors, will certainly be a team to watch out for.
Finally, we have SIM. The team will be captained by National player, Jon Lee. The team is mostly unknown to me! Except for Eugene Rong and former AC scrumhalf-who-now-looks-more-like-a-prop, Sugyanto who are listed to be representing SIM. It will be interesting to see what SIM can pull off, as I am sure they will like to improve their performance from the last SUNIG.
Well thats our wrap on the upcoming SUNIG, we hope you guys get down to catch the action...and to see who will be crown this year's SUNIG champions!
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