Published on: Friday, October 23, 2009 |
Kota Kinabalu: The Malaysia Rugby 7's Team is aiming to oust other Asian teams for a bid to win the champion's title of the Brunei Sevens tournament, which will be held from October 23-25, this year.
India, Brunei, Laos and the Philippines will all be vying for honours at this third leg of the International Rugby Board (IRB) Asian Rugby Sevens Series 2009, but standing in their way will be a strong Malaysian team, who among the five competing teams is considered the tournament's powerhouse.
"Our objective is to win the Brunei championship, which if we accomplish would give a great boost to our preparation for the more crucial Borneo Sevens tournament here next week (Oct 31-Nov 1), said Team Manager, KH Tan when met during a training session at the SM La Salle field here, Thursday.
Tan said the team's involvement in the Brunei Sevens tournament serves mainly as a fitness preparation to ensure the team's peak performance for the Borneo Sevens championship where qualification points for the 2011 World Sevens Series will be up for grabs.
"We want to ensure we do our best in this tournament (Borneo Sevens) and taking part in the Brunei championship will help us reach the fitness level we need to be in to give the top Asian teams a worthy challenge come next week.
"Asian powerhouse teams such as Japan, Korea, China and Hong Kong will be competing and they are all expecting a strong challenge from us after the spectacular debut we made (in the IRB Tournament Series) where we defeated Korea in the Sri Lanka championship final, last year," said Tan.
The Malaysian National team also competed in last year's World Cup Qualifiers in Hong Kong where they finished sixth and were runners-up in the plate event.
The IRB Sevens Tournament Series will pit teams in exciting 14-minute matches (seven minutes per half with one minute interval) where fans of the sport will get to see rugby players in explosive action in games that are played with plenty of speed and agility.
"The game of rugby sevens is all about speed, agility and mistakes. Teams will have very little margin for errors as even the slightest mistake can result in dramatic effects that can cost them their victory," explained Tan.
Spearheading Malaysian hopes at the tournament in Brunei will be three naturalised Fijian players along with four Sabah athletes and three others from the peninsula.
The three Fijian players, namely Semi S. Sovunidakua, Nacani Seniu and Apenisa Vasutoga have been living and training in the state after being brought in by the IJM Sandakan Rugby Club in 2001.
Since then, the sport has seen significant local development as the players were primarily engaged as coaches, but also play for the state and country through their eligibility as naturalised players (having stayed in the state for more than three years).
According to Tan, it is common for countries to have naturalised players such as Fijians playing for the England and Tongans for the Japan national team.
The rest of the Malaysian team line up, starting with the team coach, Jude Rampangajouw, include Sabahans Lee Wei Ming (captain), Frankie Joilin, Azman bin Osman, Sahrin bin Dising and Nik Safuan Ismade bin Nik Man, Mohamad Amin bin Jamaluddin, Dinesvaran Krishnan and Mohd Fairuz bin Abdul Rahman from the peninsula.
