SINGAPORE SLING

  Yes no need to remind me, a big article on the Hong Kong 7’s last week and no scores. Don’t worry I have all the details this week. Congratulations to South Africa who beat Argentina 24-19 in the Cup Final of the Singapore 7’s. The game went into extra time as both teams were drawn 19-19 on the final whistle. It was sudden death after the resumption of play with Marc De Marigny (pic) of South Africa scoring first to take out the title.

Fiji had a big day as well, they won the Plate Final against New Zealand 19-15. It was great to see Eric Ruch score a try in the final in probably his last IRB match in Asia. Eric has played at the Hong Kong 7’s a record 14 times and is a great ambassador for the game. He is 39 years old but looks 29, I certainly look like I have had a hard life when put up next to him. Eric certainly won’t be short of offers when he finishes his Rugby. He is one of the funniest after dinner speakers I have heard and he is also a lawyer.

Back to Fiji and their big weekend, they missed out on the Cup competition earlier in the day when they were beaten by Samoa 15-5. This put them into the Plate competition along with big guns England and New Zealand. They beat England 19-5 in the Plate Semi-Final which put them into the final with New Zealand. The crowd certainly enjoyed the finals, imagine seeing Fiji/NZ in one final, immediately followed by South Africa/Argentina.

Now to Singapore’s fortunes, Saturday was a repeat of Hong Kong with 3 fifty point drubbings. The last game on Saturday was particularly dreadful when Canada belted us 59 blot. To say we had a heart to heart after the Canada game was putting it lightly. I’ll say this for the boys they certainly took everything on board and come Sunday they were a completely different team. We lost to Korea 14-5 in the first game and were very unlucky to lose we were honestly the better team. Our next game was against our arch rivals Hong Kong we led 12-5 at half time and finally went down 19-12, again a game we should have won. These results certainly give us some confidence going into the 7’s World Cup qualifiers in September.

The Singapore 7’s was a great event with a very similar atmosphere to Hong Kong but with a smaller crowd. On the final day 12,000 people attended which is a great crowd for Singapore considering how little press Rugby gets here. The week of the 7’s we got some good press with the Monday after the final the best I have seen, with almost a full page in the major English dailies. It is back to normal now with page after page of English Premier League Soccer and no Rugby. The Pommies must be laughing to have a country so far away, so completely fixated with their game. TV, Radio and Press is saturated with English Premier League Soccer here. I don’t know how many replica jerseys, stickers etc. they sell here but it would be huge, you see them everywhere.

I have reports from Coff’s Harbour that Stormin Norman was last seen heading north in a car with a mysterious woman. All very strange indeed, I have my spies on the border waiting to see if he crosses and the gang at Kava Central constantly updates me. If there are any aspiring soap script writers out there get up to Melrose Harbour and follow Stormin Norman around for a week you will get twelve months worth of scripts. Stormin Norman’s love life is very complex indeed.

Email Matt Ryan at bubbaemu@hotmail.com

Regards
Matt (Bubba) Ryan