The silence erupted into thunderous cheers at the “Up and On!” Wah!! That was a goosebump moment for every Saint in the stadium!!!

Then, just before the kick-off, 4 or 5 chaps from both Raffles and Saints ran to the half-way line for handshakes, hugs and slaps on the backs. These were rugby foes from schooldays (30 years ago), who became friends from playing rugby at tertiary, Club and even at National levels. Such camaraderie between players from Singapore’s best rugby-playing schools!

15 minutes into the game and it was obvious that the Saints forwards were bigger (must be our diet!) and dominated most of the scrums and rucks, resulting in more ball possession.

ORA’s backline look more prepared than previous years but they made many handling errors. Their fly-half even made the mistake of not looking before passing, and threw the ball into an open area for a Saints player to pounce on it and race to the try-line unopposed.

As the tries started to stack up, it became apparent that our strength and inspiration came from our amazing school spirit that brought together almost 30 players. We simply had more men! And playing to the “rolling-subs” rule, the Saints brought in fresh legs for almost every position in the team. There were even more substitutions than there were jerseys, so some players coming off had to strip off their horribly sweat-soaked jerseys to pass it to the incoming players!!!

Many Saints’ veteran players had a run too. These included players like Slemat Rakisan, Teo Han Chua, Clifford Tan and Chow Yee Lee, whose first touch of the ball was collecting a pass on the left wing and sprinting to the try-line as fast as his 53-year-old legs could carry him!

At the post-match dinner, there was more of that amazing rugby camaraderie between former arch-rivals! Players from both sides were chatting, laughing and joining the beer-drinking contest (which the Rafflessians won)! The evening ended on a high note with the boisterous singing of both school songs.

Final score of Jim Weir Cup 2008 (Over-35s):
St. Andrew’s Alumni 44, Old Rafflesians’ Association, 3