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| Ladies rugby in
Singapore |
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| Written by Jeremy Beynon
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| Sunday, 14
August 2005 |
Here at heavensgame we
have been fortunate to catch up with Shoa from the
Blacks rugby club in Singapore.
Shoa has kindly
taken the time to answer our questions.
Ladies rugby in Singapore, how popular is
it?
Ladies rugby started in 1995 in
Singapore and has really grown in the last four years.
Touch Rugby is now played in most tertiary
institutions and contact rugby is played by about 4
clubs in Singapore which participate in the local 7s
league organized by the Singapore Rugby Union.
The Singapore Women’s 7s team ranking in the
last two Asian Women’s Rugby 7s in a pool of 10 Asian
countries was 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Blacks Rugby, how did it get started?
Blacks RFC itself was formed in 1955 by a group
of rugby zealots who had to provide their own jerseys
for games, finding it much easier to obtain a black
coloured jersey than any other, the impoverished lot
donned black jerseys for their games – hence the name
Blacks Rugby Football Club. The Women’s Wing of Blacks
RFC was formed in 1996. Drawn largely from a touch rugby
background, the Blacks Women's team first started
training touch rugby. As their passion and numbers grew,
the gutsy women's team participated in their first
international contact rugby tournament - the Hat Yai
International Sevens in 1997 and brought back the
Championships against Thailand and Hong Kong. The rest,
as they say, is history.
Shao, What position
do you play?
I started as a 15s full back
when I played for varsity in London. When I returned to
Singapore, I was given the privilege to join to the
ranks of the forwards and never looked back. I’m a 7s
hooker and a 15s hook/ flank.
How many
members do you have?
The women’s wing
including touch players (and 1 expectant member!) now
stands at about 80 members.
How does the
general public take to seeing you running around the
pitch?
The initial (and now well-worn)
reaction is always one of surprise that girls would
participate in what is perceived to be a very violent
and hence male dominated sport. Although Singapore is
very cosmopolitan and its inhabitants progressive and
modern, there still remain traces of our Asian culture
wherein women do not run around driving each other into
the mud!
This notwithstanding, the enthusiasm of
the women playing rugby is infecting others everyday.
Are you happy to host ladies touring
teams?
We would love to host any ladies
touring team who are interested in having a couple of
games on our beautiful island. In previous years, Blacks
RFC hosted the Japanese and Hong Kong national 7s sides
in 1998 during the Asian Women’s Rugby 7s. In 2001 and
2002 we also hosted the New Zealand Navy Team.
Do you have any trouble finding places to
tour? And players to go?
Definitely! We are
a pretty big bunch of nutters so we’re never found
wanting in terms of the number of players who are ready
to go on tour, just places to play and ...someone to
help us pay our way there !!
Our most toured
destination todate is Thailand, we’ve had some success
at the Hat Yai International Rugby 7s and were the
defending champions of the Bangkok 7s in 2002 and 2003
when we were there. In 2001, we toured down under to
Perth where the lovely Cottesloe RFC hosted us for a
series of 7s games.
This December, we’re hoping
to hook up with some clubs in Sydney or Hong Kong for a
series of 15s and 7s as well as touch rugby games if
possible.
Is the club more interested in 7s
or 15s?
With the growing number of players,
the focus of the club has changed towards playing 15s.
Blacks RFC’s women’s wing has been playing 7s rugby for
9 years now. Last year, we sent a touring side to
Bangkok for our inaugural 15s tour and in the last four
months, the club has been training for the first and
upcoming women’s 15s league in Singapore.
Thanks
for your time shoa.Blacks can be found at Blacks rugby
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