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♔ Friday, December 24, 2010
10:35 PM |
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Christmas
Christmas party on the 29th at Wings, all past/present/future members/and cute pet dogs invited. ALL (except the dogs unless they want to) have to bring mysterious but good gift exchange present because nobody wants to be left out right (: Love you girls, have a blessed Christmas.
Labels: fun times
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♔ Tuesday, December 14, 2010
1:16 AM |
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Why stop at 7 when 15s so much fun?
Hello girls, I know many of us are just sitting around finding the drone of the holidays too much to bear (
Isnt this right
IHG people?) so I'm entertaining you
girlies with some long overdue reminisce about the 15s game we had in
BKK. It seems like just last week that we stamped our names as the trailblazers - the first uni/
pokemons to take on a full fledged 15s game and emerge victorious (not that winning is everything but
thats really something for our first game right?).
I don't have much to say about the technicalities about the game even though our G Angel did give a minute by minute report of what happened during our game. I mean I do know that at 11.42am
BKK time, we won a line out and gained 20m. The minute by minute commentary was truly scary and the line "van knock on" (12.05pm ) was especially glaring.
hahaBut I do remember the thrill of having Gerry win the ball at the second port, of having
Faj in
Bala's skins crashing in and spinning rounds and rounds, the many completely awesome Pick and Gos (damn proud of the forwards
wheehee!). And of course the people who always got our backs - there was
Toffa stepping up to play a completely new position and there was
XY covering from one wing to another wing and there was
Yilin's "fantastic!" kick for touches (5 to be exact) and Wing's creative tee.
(I have no doubt the person whose face was sat on in this picture is none other than our most tenacious teammate.)
More than that, I remember the 一湖水s (
ie the warm, pee-like, mouthful of muddy water we had to drink and swim in), the many bodies piling on top of me during the last pick and go (I never screamed, yes screamed, so
terrified-ly EVER, I truely thought I was gonna die), the many determined faces, the many I'm-damn-tired-but-I'm-giving-this-my-all-and-you-have-to-kill-me-before-I-call-for-sub face and the many teammates playing their hearts out on the field-
freshie, current students, graduates and coaches alike. We might not have played a perfect game, but I don't think we've played a game with so much heart ever.
The bonding was amazing as well, the late night mango and
pomelos, the fighting for cabs and "
cheapcheap please?" (Geri wins buyer of the trip I think), the new levels of friendships formed (the image of a certain prop running out in her black and white undies still haunts me to date) and the way we all moaned and
whined about having so much to catch up when we came back to school together.
Argh, I miss the 15s season. I miss watching our coach laugh on her butt when our number 8 trips over the ball off the scrum. I miss pulling three people (I mean literally) along with me and being there for 14 others. I miss all our jump/lift competitions. I even miss the money we worked hard to raise through those annoying shirts. I miss us all on the field together and
thats why I am still hoping we might be able to play the supposedly 15s friendlies
against NTU, and for that we're eagerly awaiting all our friends to
return to the warm arms of training. (:
And for those who cant wait or are itching to get their hands on our favourite oval ball,
theres always a club to join and you can contact any club girls to join the upcoming 15 season I'm such they'll love to have us NUS pretties. (:
love, Van
Labels: Bangkok 2010, fun times, overseas trip
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♔ Sunday, December 5, 2010
9:56 PM |
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End of season dinner (Nov 10)
Hi everybody!
Sorry for the late post on our post-season dinner. So anyway, we had a post-season awards dinner at Vivocity Marche three weeks ago (Yummmmehhhh). The dinner was mainly to mark the farewell of our 2 oldest players and exchange student Alise, as well as to give out some awards. So there you go! This is the list of players who were specially recognized for their performance this season :)
Best Rookie - Michelle Lim
Most Improved Forward - Dorothy Chia
Most Improved Back - Toffa Wahed
Most Valuable Forward - Vanessa Chang
Most Valuable Back - Esther Tan
Most TENACIOUS player of the season (always putting her body on the line for us) - Xie to the Ying to the xiexieying.
Player of the season - Nus Oldest Player Christabelle Lim Mee
We also hereby thank
Alise for joining us for the past one semester. We sincerely hope that you had fun while you picked up rugby here with us in Singapore :)
Here are some photos!
Sylvia
Labels: awards, dinner, fun times, pretty girls
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♔ Monday, October 25, 2010
10:34 PM |
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BKK trip - 7s and 10s
In a foreign land, amidst a different culture and a different language, the NUS Women’s Rugby team played a series of matches over two days, including the first-ever university level 15-aside contact game. Despite the harsh weather, unfamiliar environment and the language barrier, the girls played each match with spirit and heart and forged strong friendships, both local and overseas.
The first day marked an uncertain start with the eccentric weather. Intermittent showers and blazing hot sun in between left the pitch muddy and water-logged. The NUS girls were set to play 10-aside games against three teams from Bangkok: BUU, YOU and IPE.
While both teams put up a good fight, the first half of the NUS A vs. BUU match ended off with a draw. NUS A fought strong with more possession throughout, though a couple of slip-ups caused them a few penalties. BUU threatened with a strong comeback at the start of the second-half, nearly scoring a try, however were prevented by the persistent defence of Shuwen and Angel. Their second near-try attempt gave NUS the chance to fight back, catching them off guard as the NUS A backs swiftly turned over the ball, breaking through BUU’s defence line with Yilin scoring the winning try and sealing our victory with a successful conversion.
The second game of NUS B vs. YOU was indeed a fast-paced and exciting one, with a final score of 15-5 to NUS B. With barely two minutes into the game, Esther scored with a fake and side-step after receiving the ball off a scrum. Thereafter, Caslin scored by picking up the ball from a ruck at the third minute, and scored again six minutes into the game, pumping and breaking through a couple of tackles from YOU. At the 13th minute, Sylvia pushed through the tackles near the try-line and scored, giving NUS B a clear lead in the game. Although YOU scored one try in the second-half, the girls defended well thereafter and the game ended off with a win for NUS B.
The IPE vs. NUS B game was equally exhilarating, with NUS B winning 34-5. Good attack phases and strong defence led the girls to victory, with four of the six tries being scored in the first half of the game. IPE fought back in the second half, scoring a try five minutes into the game, but the girls triumphed overall with a solid defence line.
Heavy downpour in the fourth game YOU vs. NUS A made it a really difficult one, as poor visibility and bad field conditions caused both teams to struggle as they played on despite the rain. Sheer perseverance and willpower of the team drove them on, with Yilin scoring an amazing try in the first-half of the game and boosting their morale. The second-half of the match proved to be a tougher one, with strong defence by YOU. Towards the end of the second half, Sophie sealed the win after fighting hard and breaking through a tackle by YOU, scoring a try. However, YOU exhibited good team spirit, out-running us and stealing back a try before the game ended.
Towards the end of the day, fatigue seemed to have crept up onto the girls. The last two matches of NUS B vs. BUU and IPE vs. NUS A ended with a draw of 5-5 and a loss of 15-5 to IPE respectively, with Caslin scoring a try in the BUU game and Yilin scoring a try in the IPE game, both in the second-half of their games.
Overall, the first day of matches proved to be a trying one, with fierce defence from all three Thai teams and the crazy weather. Yet despite it all, the girls played with their hearts, learning from each game and fighting hard towards victory each time.
- Val Tham.
Labels: Bangkok 2010, overseas trip
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♔ Sunday, October 24, 2010
8:24 PM |
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And oh my love~~
As the last official tournament in 2010 for NUS, the RP Tertiary 7s tournament on the 23rd of October was looked upon with much anticipation, sadness (or glee!), but ultimately with much nostalgia, especially for the year 4s, and especially for the soon-to-be graduating seniors in semester 1.
Featuring teams from NTU, RP and a barbarians SMU team, NUS emerged champions after living three lives and taking one big bite of the cherry. (sidenote: please forgive any inaccuracies or glossing over main points like score and try scorers because the NUS oldest player has a bad memory and it doesn't help that recalling the matches has a
hazy, dream-like quality to it)
Now, it cannot be denied that NUS always seem to start slow, and our first game against SMU had our coach, Wing, on the edge for some 10 mins. The first few minutes saw SMU pushing towards our try line , while we defended phase after phase. Alas, we did not manage to turnover the ball and SMU got in an early try. After SUNIG's experience however, we were used to coming back from behind, and I dare say we had a quiet confidence that we would eventually pull through. Four minutes left on the clock and plenty of excellent defending later, we managed to get a break from the tournament's MVP Esther Tan who waltzed through 3 defenders to try under the post. A missed conversion and we were tied with SMU with minutes to spare. The minutes flew by and I only remember NUS rookie of the year Caslin getting the ball, a defender flailing her arms fruitlessly, Caslin's power calves getting further, legs, a boot, (I must have been on the ground) and the whistle for a TRY. This time, the conversion was good ;) and we won 12-5.
The most intense game yet was about to kick off, in the mid-day heat and haze against our friendly NTU, due to a certain scrum/ruck specialist on NTU's side who certainly wow-ed the crowd, and a certain fairy who could fly (which we must chase). It was in the stars that NTU had to score first and we had to play catch-up. However, the stars were busy re-aligning on NUS's side, and it was urgency off a series of penalties to us that we put in a try of our own. The blinding rucks and misty haze has a memory erasing quality that resulted much of the writer's inability to fill in the next sequence of events, except the heavy haze-filled breaths, the i-am-tired-but-must-look-not-tired look on everyone's faces, and finally the jubilant-but-secretly-relieved-its-over look. This is the game we fell and got up, we erred and made up, we defended our ass off, we played our hearts out, picked it back up and played some more. We got our deserving win, and we grew as a team (hungrier too for the gold, the food, and a certain peanut butter bread/cake.)
To be crowned Champions, we had one last game to prove it, and prove it we did. We were the stars of our movie (sometimes watching our co-actors but our coach doesn't have to know that) and we put up a good show for the audience with four tries. Capitalising on RP's lack of communication among their players, we made a few good breaks to put the ball under the posts. We were defensively sound for most of the game with everyone working hard at the breakdowns but a last minute lapse in concentration allowed an RP player to break through our defense line to try just as the horn sounded. This brought out a little frown on our coach's face but not for long because nobody frowns at Champions.
Looking back from when we started our season with fitness sessions at the track, trainings at the s**tty field, experience and fun at Bangkok, to our games at SUNIG, SRSS and finally IVP, it has been a momentous journey that I am glad to have shared with every one of you.(insert soulful music) Its time to say bye (sob now!) and I am glad to see how everyone has grown together as a team and I am sure we can continue breaking many firsts for university women's rugby.So yes we ended our (official) rugby semester with a bang and hopefully our academic semester too. No doubt though we will be back for more unofficial rugby games and gatherings!
Labels: IVP
