Written by: Ryan Jay Naidu Edited by: Choa Zhao Xiang and Leung Lok Heng Photos by: EusoffWorks
Touch Rugby. While its name seems pretty self-explanatory, there are countless facets to this game an exercise of pure intuition fails to unearth. Touch rugby is certainly much more than meets the eye; it is not just non-contact rugby, but a sport in its own right with its own set of dynamics. Nevertheless, in touch and contact rugby alike, each team of fervent, war-tested individuals are all chasing a common currency. A try. In layman’s terms, a try in rugby is equivalent to a goal in other sports such as football and floorball for instance. A try is scored when a player brings the ball and places it within the designated scoring area (the try zone) and places it on the ground. 6 a side, 12 minutes per half, one day. It hardly gets more intense than this. With speed, power and intensity governing the game, the team which ultimately has scored more tries at the end of the match prevails as the winner. (and let’s face it, it’s Eusoff Hall without a doubt).
Touch rugby is by no means an easy sport. It requires utmost competency in both technical and tactical aspects of the game. While it is a contest of physical prowess, it is also a chess match between opposing strategic approaches by each team. As such, our touch rugby players need to be well-versed in both the mental and physical components of this multifaceted game, as individuals and a cohesive unit. It must leave one pondering, “This sounds extremely complicated and demanding, how does our hall do it?” Being a generational powerhouse in both men’s and women’s touch rugby, Eusoff Hall undoubtedly boasts a certain winning formula that it attributes its success to one IHG after another. And who better to tell us more about this secret sauce than the man and woman at the helm of Eusoff’s touch rugby teams this year.
Shern and Sheann captain this year’s tough and terrifying truggers.
First, let’s meet our men’s touch rugby captain, Shern. Being a contact player for 13 years and having donned the national colours on numerous occasions, Shern recently ventured into the realm of touch rugby slightly over a year ago, right before he started his university education. It is safe to say he took up touch rugby like a fish to water and has never looked back, winning the IHG title in his very first season representing the hall. His contributions on and off the field earned him the honour of carrying the team’s captaincy this year and one does not have to look far to ascertain why. Always choosing to remain humble, Shern does not let past successes determine the identity of his team, preferring the ground-up approach: Nothing given. Everything earned. He also relishes the narrative surrounding this IHG season – new blood. While many seniors who were key contributors to last year’s victory have since departed the hallowed grounds of Eusoff Hall, a new wave of incoming talent has walked through the fabled gates, a true testament to the trusted production line that has blessed our hall with continuity in talent and success. Unfazed and quietly confident, our touch rugby team is raring to go come IHG 2019/2020. With a philosophy of team before everything, our men’s touch rugby is certainly a force to be reckoned with. As the captain aptly articulated, “The strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack”.
With his years of experience (and casual flexing), Shern is a force to be reckoned with.
Our women’s touch team are juggernauts in their own right. Captained by Sheann, who has a smorgasbord of accolades to her name at varying levels. Boasting experience from school to club to varsity, Sheann leads by example by being the trailblazer that she is, ensuring our women’s team is always in constant pursuit of greatness, as well as a team which strikes fear into the hearts of all opposition. While she has admitted that many of her players, when new to the game, start off by making ‘rookie mistakes’ such as rolling the ball as if one were in a bowling alley, she takes pride in saying that after further exposure to the top tier calibre of our coaching staff and senior players, these fundamental errors were not only rectified but many fresh players had developed into players capable of wreaking havoc come IHG. After falling short in last year’s IHG despite being unbeaten throughout the course of the tournament, the ladies intend to make a statement this year, boasting a much more experienced bunch and training with the unobstructed intention of becoming winners. Sheann highlights that her team has to hold themselves to the highest of standards and there is no margin for mistakes or excuses. She quoted her IVP coach’s words in what she believed to resonate with her vision for her team this year, saying that “On bad days we are good, on good days we are fu***** phenomenal”. Come down and watch our women’s touch rugby team be phenomenal, obliterating whichever hall stands in our way come IHG season this year.
Sheann sets the bar high for her team, who are more than up for the challenge.
Apart from performing on the field, both our touch rugby captains have made known their goal to foster greater bonds between their teams – “the touch rugby spirit” as they call it. Both Shern and Sheann’s observation from last year’s team was that there was no correspondence, or even knowledge of each other’s existence for that matter, in that the men’s and women’s teams were completely separate entities. However, they eagerly wish to circumvent this culture this year, and change has already been apparent. Using the opportunity of shared training timings as a starting point, the men’s and women’s teams are slowly beginning to forge ties of kinship within and across teams, inclusive of their respective TMs. Slowly but surely, our touch rugby teams have begun their transformation, and perhaps might revolutionise the way in which our hall’s CCAs are approached. Watch this space – I’d do it if I were you.
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