Scrum!

I received an email informing me the other day that the Singapore National Men's Rugby Team will be having a match in Dubai...

Excerpt from the email is as follows:
The Singapore National Men's Rugby 15s (The Reds) will face the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Dubai on Wednesday, 23rd April 2014 in the Asian Five Nations (A5N) Division 1 competition.

This is an important international match as it will determine whether Singapore or UAE will stay in the Division 1 or be relegated to Division 2 for next year's A5N competition.

We hope to rally as many Singaporeans in UAE as possible to come down and to support our National team when they play on Wednesday.
 The details are:
Match: Singapore Vs UAE
Venue: The Sevens Stadium, Dubai
Ticketing: No tickets are needed as confirmed by host nation
Date: 23rd April, 2014 (Wednesday)
Kick Off: 7.30pm (Dubai Time)
 
Thank you.

So I gathered our Dubai Kakis and even though.. almost all of us DO NOT follow the sport and DO NOT understand the sport, WE ALL GAMELY ARRANGED to meet up to SUPPORT TEAM SINGAPURA!

It was a school night and the next day is also still a school day but me and Max decided to go because we also hoped that Ace will have a chance to watch his country in action. I remembered the time where me and my secondary school and uni mates will arrange to go watch Singapore play in the Malaysian cup and the euphoria we felt when we were cheering them on... I hope that Ace will also get to experience that as well.. and so, we made a decision to go despite it being a school day...


That day, Ace came back from school and said he told his friends that he was going to watch Singapore and one of his friends who watches Rugby matches told him that he predicts that Singapore will win... "Because UAE team is quite lousy.." he said.

So we hurriedly had dinner and went over....

As it was held in a sports club and the club is quite big, we were not quite sure where exactly the match is held. When we arrived, there was a match that has already started but there was no sign, and they did not have any national flag on their jerseys.. so I couldnt tell... PLUS very important, you wouldnt believe it but hor, both teams were filled with ANG MOHs.. so how to tell if this is the match we are looking for or not?!

Plus the crowd was pretty small.. and we were the only Singaporeans there.. felt a little disappointed on Ace's behalf... We were all geared up lor. We brought our SGP scarfs, Ace brought a noise maker and me and Max were dressed in red while Ace was  dressed in I LOVE SG!

We asked around and found out that THIS IS THE MATCH! So leh, we decided to find a place to sit down and watch the match lor:) Anyway, we were the earliest and none of our friends have arrived...

Ace was rather disappointed..  that the crowd was small and there is no chance for him to cheer.. plus.. we all did not really understand the match lor...

But since here, take some photos lah:) wahahaha...

Anyway, Max was my Rugby teacher that day and he tried to explain the game to me lah.. so I sort of can catch a little ball..

A little after we sat down, two of our friends arrived and another malay man and his son arrived. We just smiled at him and told him to sit down with us as we are the only singaporean supporters:) hahahaha....

I recieved the email from the Singapore Women's Group but to my surprise, no one from the group came at all.. I tot they all very on about this sort of thing...

But at least, whenever Singapore scores, we will ask Ace to blow his noise maker:) wahahaha

Eventually another family arrived... and here are our fellow Singaporeans who are here to support..

Half time and Max was super happy cos there was a beer cart where they dispensed beer... Okay, dispense is not the right word.. SELL is:) hahahaha...

Yes, and we scored another goal!

Team Singapore's supporters!:)

Max said hor, dun think that it looks very messy but actually it is a ruffian's game played by gentlemen... because they have alot of rules and techniques... when they pass the ball have to pass backwards and becuase of the rules and because they have to fake body movement so opponents dunno where they are passing, the end result is that they look like they are dancing!:) wahahaha

And then some parts they will carry someone up to catch the ball... also like dancing to me:)

The people who were there all brought their dua leng gong camera with their dua leng kong lens.. sorry ah.. I only brought my phone and this is the best I can capture:) wahahaha

THis is called a SCRUM... basically just people gathering together and then someone called the hooker has to hook the ball out...

And the match ended 30 vs 13! We won!!!!

Congrats all around to the Singapore Team!:)

I think the team members were excited to see fellow Singaporeans as well and so they said we should all take a picture together! :) And we did!

That sort of set the stage for me and Ace also..because for the longest time, we have been talking about watching SCRUM, a tv drama produced by a friend of mine:)

Now that both me and Ace understand this game better, it is a good time to watch the show lor.. and so we did.

I enjoyed the show (even though I would have prefered it to be acted by seasoned actors as I find most of the actors inside were stiff and too green that they were either mostly awkward or super exaggerated.... ) and Ace loved it.. he complained that it is too short and kept asking me when is Uncle YX going to make another tv show... wahahaha :)

Only thing I find it a pity that the drama was very focused on the storyline and somehow, the cinematography was not able to translate the beauty in the movements of a rugby game. I find the movements in rugby while very fast are very elegant and beautiful...Pity I feel that it did not get represented in the show...

PS: I am curious though why the SGP rugby team is mostly made up of ang mohs and not second or third generation Singaporeans.. Anyone knows why?

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