Varsity Rugby
With the inclusion of a new coach, as well as a mix of new promising talents and experienced players in the squad, we were all very excited for the rugby season. After a first very strong display at home against Shrewsbury (77-0), our first tournament was the Royal Bangkok Sports Club Invitational - a first chance to bond as a team and also to observe areas to improve on for the season. Narrowly losing to the Barbarians in the Semi being the only low point of the weekend, we made a strong statement by comfortably beating our arch rivals NIST (24-0) and finished 3rd. Players who stood out in this tournament include Ross and Lucas as they displayed great potential in their first ever rugby tournament. The following tournament was the NIST Invitational. Our first game was against the Barbarians, and narrowly lost (again). We then won our remaining games against Thepsirin (39-0) and Lycée (22-0) to finish 3rd. ISB Spirit Night was a real test for us, as we were missing some key players in our team and we had a record of never beating ISB at this event. However, we managed to beat Harrow (38-0) and break the curse by overcoming ISB (22-0) in front of a big crowd, whilst playing 10s rugby. Before the Christmas break, we hosted the BPS Invitational. South Island School of Hong Kong was our first opponent, and after being dominated in the first half our late tries were not enough to get the win (12-19). We then went on to defeat RIS (42-0), ASB (40-0) and Lycée (21-5) and met SIS in the final. At this point we had many injuries and SIS’ power and skills proved too much for us (0-29). After a long winter holiday, we came back and had our last friendly game against ISB at home, where we played like we were still on holiday, eventually defeating them 17-0. The following weekend was our BISAC tournament, and again we did not play to our full potential, coming away with scrappy wins against Harrow (19-5) and Shrewsbury (22-7). The final was against NIST, who seemed to have improved since we last played them. With a large crowd to support us, the game had high intensity from the kick-off, as we conceded the first try. However, the tables were turning and we managed to score 3 back to back tries, before conceding one just before the final siren (21-12). This victory was well-needed as it raised our confidence 2 weeks before SEASAC. Because of last year’s results, we were drawn in a difficult pool for SEASAC. Our first opponent was UWC East and it was an imperative to win this game to get to the Semis. However, we played some inaccurate and scrappy rugby, 29