Schools rugby scores an A+
8am on Saturday 23rd January at Sekolah Pelita Harapan (SPH), Karawaci and the temperature was already searing as budding schoolboy rugby players from greater Jakarta and Bogor arrived at the field for the 2010 Indonesian Schools Rugby 7’s tournament.
The tournament adopted the Rugby 7’s format of the sport, which is now a focus for Indonesian rugby, since the sport was recently included in the 2016-20 Olympic Games.
A total of 14 teams were split into 2 pools of 7, which allowed the competition to be run continuously on 2 adjoining fields from 9am to 4pm, with the heat on and off the field rising throughout the day. With over 200 kids from 11 Schools across the Jakarta-Bogor region it was the first chance for many of them to experience what rugby and playing in a competition is all about.
Indonesian players from national schools shared the field with expatriate players from international schools, meaning that the combined on-field effort of all the players, coaches and match officials was a huge step forwards for the Indonesian schools rugby community. IRFU President, Air Vice Marshall (retired) Pieter Wattimena was very impressed by the quality of the tournament and commented, “I became involved in rugby so that I could help a new sport be developed for Indonesian school students.”
The pool games played throughout the morning evened out the competition, with the finals Play-offs kicking off after a short lunch break. All teams had a chance to win a trophy at different levels of achievement in the finals.
Sekolah Bogor Raya (the youngest team in the competition) ended up taking the ‘Wooden Spoon’ as they were defeated in the last place play-off. Although they were not able to score a point all day, Head Coach, Robert McKinnon was happy with the performance of his boys, “Some of my players are 5 years younger than their competitors, for them to be included in this competition is a great honor, the boys will gain enormous experience from this day. They’ll definitely be coming back bigger, better, stronger and fitter next year.”
Unfortunately Cita Buana were forced to forfeit their finals game against Lab School Kebayoran due to injuries sustained throughout their four grueling pool matches, thus handing Lab School the opportunity to walk away with the Saucer Trophy.
The Jug Final saw the Indonesian locals from Global Jaya come up against the might of Jakarta International School’s 3rd team, and after JIS scored the 1st try early on in the match, Global Jaya managed to assert their dominance to run away with a convincing 39–5 win
If there was a most improved award for the day it would have been awarded to the BPK Penabur team from Gading Serpong. BPK decided they wanted to enter a team only two weeks before the tournament, so the team coached by Andy Stephens (an Indonesian Rugby stalwart) and Gino Arseneault had a lot of work to do in a very short time period. After a tough first game BPK won their next 3 pool matches and secured a place in the Shield Final against Darunnajah Pesantren. Unfortunately BPK’s glory run came to an end, with Darunnajah running out 17-0 winners. It should be noted that earlier in the day the Darunnajah lads had pushed the JIS 1st team all the way after leading against them early in the 2nd half of their pool match.
The next final saw the JIS 2nd’s taking on the SPH 2nd’s in what was the most closely fought match of the day. This match was a see-sawing affair with the lead changing on several occasions and just as JIS had the match won, the SPH lads ran the ball from their own try line, following a JIS mistake, to score a try on the siren winning the match and the Bowl Trophy 15-12. Both teams could be commended on the spirit in which this match was played.
The Plate Final was a replay of last year’s Cup Final, with the JIS 1st’s taking on the SPH 1st’s. After the painful defeat on the siren last year the SPH lads were not about the lay down at the final hurdle, by asserting their dominance early in this match. In what was a tough match the SPH team proved that they are a serious rugby playing school by winning the Plate Trophy 14-10.
Although the British International School managed to rack up a massive 230 points for and none against in their 4 Pool matches, BIS were unfortunately under strength for the Cup Final and had to borrow a few players from other teams as most of their team had to leave for another sporting commitment. BIS were up against another team that was also unbeaten in their earlier Pool matches in the French International School. The French team is known as ‘Ayam Legend’ and in the Cup Final they were too strong taking out the match and the 2010 Indonesian Schools Rugby 7’s Cup by a margin of 22-0.
Special mention must be given to Jean Layhaud from ‘Ayam Legend’ who won the ‘Top Try Scorer’ award with 11 tries for the tournament and Mitchell Choo from the JIS 1st’s who was awarded the ‘Best and Fairest Player of the Tournament’.
Apart from these two boys there many more standout players, especially a number of Indonesian youths who suitably impressed all of those present including IRFU Chairman, Stephen Barber who said, “I am very proud of the progress Sam has made with schools rugby development and I hope to see some of these players representing the Indonesia in the very near future.”
The success of this tournament and the IRFU’s Schools Rugby program has encouraged a number of people in the Jakarta business community to back Jakarta- Bogor Schools Rugby, including Graham Lawrence from Maxidrill Indonesia, who has agreed to the sponsor 2010-11 schools rugby season. This idea is for all the schools to play in a series of tournaments at the various schools to decide the ultimate winner of the inaugural Maxidrill Schools Rugby 7’s Cup.
The IRFU has set a firm goal of selecting a National U20’s Team to represent Indonesia in 2011.
The IRFU would like to thank all players, coaches and schools involved in the 2010 Indonesian Schools Rugby 7’s Tournament for making it such a great success. Indonesian rugby is also very grateful to SPH and its staff for providing a first class venue and helping with preparing the immaculate pitches for the tournament. The Union is also very thankful to Coca-Cola for their supply of refreshing drinks and the tournament balls, plus International SOS for providing medical assistance and support throughout the day. A final big thank you must go to all the referees and tournament officials who volunteered their time and worked tirelessly from start to finish.
It was a great day for schools rugby development and a fantastic day in the history of Indonesian rugby.
Text and images courtesy: Sam Refshauge
