11/2-3/2002: Atlantis Men at Singapore Cricket Club
International Sevens
Emil Signes
November 21, 2002
JUNE 26, 2013
Note of June 2013: this is the article I submitted to Rugby Magazine. It appeared in an edited form.
Singapore Cricket
Club International Rugby 7s - 2002
Emil Signes
HYPERLINK
"http://www.scc.org.sg/core/rugby71.htm" \t "core"
INCLUDEPICTURE "http://www.scc.org.sg/pix/rug7_logo.gif" \*
MERGEFORMATINET
Singapore, November 2-3, 2002. Davetalevu, a
team comprising 4 Fijian internationals, barely got by a
never-say-die Durban Harlequin team, 29-28, to take the
championship of the 55th annual Singapore Cricket Club
International Sevens. This match followed three other
finals – Jug, Bowl and Plate – all part of a 2-day, 68-game
extravaganza of sevens rugby. Demoted on the first day,
the American side Atlantis played superbly on Sunday to win the
Bowl.
Reality checks were all over the place: the tournament was
marked by a minute of silence in memory of 8 members of the host
SCC club and 9 members of the visiting Hong Kong FC, all lost in
the terrorist attack on Bali three weeks earlier.
Singapore Cricket Club
International Rugby 7s – History
Held continuously for the past 55
years, the SCC Sevens is one of the oldest continuously running
sevens tournaments in the world – the only extant major sevens
tournament ones I know to be older are Melrose (1883) – and
probably some other Scottish Border sevens – and Middlesex
(1926).
It is only within the past 20 years or so, however, that the
tournament has enjoyed its very international flavor, and it
gets tougher and tougher every year. This year’s
tournament was thought by many to be the toughest ever.
The format is six pools of 4 teams, each playing 3 games on
Saturday. The top two teams in each pool plus 4 of the 3rd place
teams advance to a group of 16, with the 4th place teams and two
3rd place teams comprising the Bowl. Following the round
of 16, the winners advance to the Ablitt Cup competition and the
losers move into the Plate. Following the first Bowl
round, the losers move on to the Jug Competition.
Teams
This year’s competition included the
following teams:
League A
Oriental Rongotai (New Zealand)
Marist North Harbour (New Zealand)
Sayle Select [Randwick “B”] (Australia)
SCC Tankards (Singapore)
League B
Taradale (New Zealand)
Wellington (New Zealand)
NS Wanderers (Malaysia)
Singa Lions (Singapore)
League C
Army UK
Swedish Vikings
Wave Venture Barbarians
Kurumi (Japan)
League D
Randwick (Australia)
Morobe Hammerhead Sharks (Papua New Guinea)
South Coast Warriors (South Africa)
Hong Kong Football Club
League E
Davetalevu (Fiji)
Atlantis (USA)
Linton (New Zealand)
Wanderers (Singapore)
League F
Durban Harlequins (South Africa)
Impala (Kenya)
Cobra (Malaysia)
SCC (Singapore)
League
Play
League A was a toughie, with
defending champion Oriental-Rongotai (the “Ories,” from
Wellington’s Oriental Bay) and Marist North Harbour, battling
for top seed.
Two more NZ teams – 4-time champs Taradale and Wellington –
represented by the Hutt Old Boys club, winner of tournament to
represent Wellington – led League B.
Watching NS Wanderers was a “blast from the past,” as they
featured player-coach Tomasi Cama of Fiji, scorer of the “most
famous try in sevens history” in the 1990 Hong Kong Sevens final
vs. New Zealand. Cama looked pretty unfit, but somehow
managed to score a couple of game-winning tries.
In League C, Army UK comprised nearly a completely Fijian
side. Commonwealth citizens are eligible for the British
army, and after the appearance of a Fijian band at the Edinburgh
Tattoo several years ago, Fijians began enlisting. Their
numbers increased, and . . . yet another Fijian side has
emerged, this time under the banner of the UK.
The Swedish Vikings, one of the fan favorites at the tournament,
are thought to be the only rugby team in the world that takes
the field in Viking helmets, complete with horns (they do take
them off before kickoff).
Perhaps the most providential entry into this year’s tournament
was the “Wave Venture Barbarians.” The Brunei Wanderers had
dropped out in response to the Bali tragedy, and the hosts were
scouting around for a replacement team. They found that a
cable-laying ship docked in the harbor, the Wave Venture, had 13
Fijian crew members. Voila! – a third team of Fijians
entered the fray. One of their players – Napoleon
Kurucake – was to serve as an injury replacement for Atlantis in
our final game.
League D was led by Randwick. With a touring party of 50,
including 40 players, headed for Portugal to play fifteens,
Randwick also entered a second side, “Sayle Select,” named for
legendary Aussie flanker Jeff Sayle, in the tournament.
It was good to see an old friend, Robin Tarere, coach of the
Morobe Hammerheads. I had met Robin on several occasions
in the 90s when he was captain of Papua New Guinea and I was
manager of the US men. In 1992 I swapped with Robin for an
authentic PNG grass skirt and phallic appliance.
Also in League D was the Hong Kong Football Club, a team that
had lost seven players and two supporters to the horror of
Bali. Originally not scheduled to come, the HKFC made it a
point to support the SCC in their time of mutual mourning.
League E featured the dynamic Davetalevu team, led by four
Fijian internationals. They were joined by Atlantis, the
first-ever American team in the tournament, and Linton, a Kiwi
team from Manawatu, with 90% of its club members of the NZ
military.
In League F, the Durban Harlequins, always one of the
tournament’s best teams, were to reach the finals, but not
before a near-upset by Impala of Kenya in Pool Play.
Richard Kanda of the Maryland Exiles was a member of Impala.
Another US presence at the tournament was Eagle Jovesa Naivalu
playing center for Taradale.
The Killing in
Bali
It will be hard to think of this
year’s tournament without recalling the terrorist attack in Bali
three weeks earlier. Nearly 200 people were killed in two
bombings, perhaps – per the ESPN web site – as many as 45 of
them rugby players. (Besides the participants in the Bali
Tens, who comprised the majority of the rugby casualties, there
was also an amateur rugby league team from Sydney on holiday in
Bali. An Aussie rules team was there as well. These teams
lost players and are probably counted in that 45 number.
It was a huge loss for the rugby community.) One of those was an
American. Jake Young, a former All-American football
player at Nebraska, was playing “one last game” for the Hong
Kong FC before he was to rejoin his wife and young son, already
relocated in the United States.
Despite the tragic loss of half their squad in Bali, SCC decided
not to cancel the tournament because “this is what our lost
teammates would have wanted, and besides . . . we didn’t want to
let the bastards win.” Despite their tragic losses in Bali, the
Hong Kong FC sent a side to lend support to the SCC.
Ablitt Cup
The main trophy of The Singapore
Cricket Club International Rugby 7’s Tournament is the Ablitt
Cup, presented to the club in 1947 to be played for in
perpetuity.
This year, both semifinals and the final were absolutely
fabulous contests. In the first, a team with seven
starting Fijians, Davetalevu, eked out a 12-7 win over a team
with only six, the Army UK. In the second, Durban needed
overtime to register an identical 12-7 victory over Randwick.
The final went down to the last minute: Durban’s kicker, who had
made all four of their conversions, missed a penalty kick at the
end that would have given them the win. As it was,
Davetalevu hung on to win 29-28 in a fabulous game.
Plate
Contested since 1979, the Plate is
also a very high-level competition. The new Wellington
representative gathered this year’s championship by virtue of a
36-27 win over the very exciting Impala team. Semifinal
victories were Wellington 21-12 over Sayle Select (Randwick II)
and Impala 27-19 over Morobe Hammerhead Sharks.
Bowl
Atlantis was one of the 3rd place
finishers relegated to the Bowl by virtue of point differential
(they were unlucky to be in a pool with Davetalevu, who scored
151 unanswered points on Saturday). Unhappy to be there,
they nevertheless played very well on Sunday and cruised through
that Division winning three games by combined scores of 131-10.
Jug
The Jug Division was won by Hong
Kong Football Club, last-second 14-12 victors over Kurumi of
Japan.
Thus eight different countries – Fiji, South Africa, New
Zealand, Kenya, USA, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan – were
represented in the four final matches. Other countries
represented at the tournament included Australia, Malaysia,
Sweden and the UK.
Atmosphere
The crowd (estimated between 4,000
and 5,000) was enthusiastic the entire weekend, and the
“Heineken girls” and the “Tequila girls” (the latter dressed in
short short shorts with a bottle of Tequila holstered to their
waists and shots for sale) kept male participants’ and
spectators’ attention throughout the weekend. The covered
enclosure where we attended the service for the Bali victims had
become the tournament shop, where food, programs, T
shirts, jerseys and other souvenirs were being sold – with
proceeds this year going to the Bali victims’ fund.
Following the tournament there was a barbecue and disco for all
the participants; a typical international sevens’ tournament
party . . . wonderful!
Uncle Ishmael
The story would not be complete
without a mention of “Uncle Ishmael.” One of the U-23 women
players I coached at the women’s ITT 7s, 18-year old Fiona
Foxon, is a native of Singapore and recommended that we visit
her Uncle Ishmael while in town.
“Ishi” turned out to be a big fan and, following the tournament
party, besides introducing several of us to Singapore Slings,
led some of the lads to other Singapore imbibing
establishments. As I had departed to pack by that time, I
can’t really fill in the blanks, but a good time was had by all.
Atlantis in
Singapore
Due to a last-minute injury to Dave
Heebner, Atlantis arrived in Singapore with only nine playing
members:
Jim Brill, captain
Drew Cruz
Scott Davis
Marc Frey
Alistair Greer
Gordon Hilleque
Jamey Kohlbeck
Mike Petri
Mike Wilson
Peter “Pedro” Wildenberg was the manager, Beet McKinnon the
physio, and I was the coach.
We picked up Chris Barron, a promising 21-year old from
Randwick’s extended squad, but he got injured on the first day
(trying to run around a Fijian – injured is one thing, but
injured doing silly things is another), and we added Wave
Venture player Napoleon Kurucake for the Bowl Final. In
addition, Pedro snuck in a minute of play against Davetalevu so
he could share in the 0-47 torture.
Atlantis is proud to be a stopping place for future Eagles, and
this year several young players performed well. The
youngest of these was US U-19 squad member Mike Petri, a 2002
graduate of Xavier HS. Xavier is also my alma mater; just
a slightly different year (in fact, my freshman year was so long
ago that it saw the graduation of future Supreme Court Justice
Nino Scalia).
Another youngster that gets better every time I see him is Le
Moyne’s 21-year old Andrew Cruz, a graduate of Xavier’s
cross-town rival Fordham Prep.
Itinerary
We arrived in Singapore minutes
before midnight Tuesday after a 29-hour trip from home.
Bright and early Wednesday morning, however, we were training on
the Padang, the home of the Singapore Cricket Club.
Singapore is very nearly on the Equator, and it was, as always,
hot and steamy. Wednesday afternoon, however, there was no
training session as we attended a memorial service for Singapore
Cricket Club victims of the Bali Tragedy.
Thursday we had double sessions at the Padang followed by an
hour’s scrimmage against the Durban Harlequins at Nanyang
Polytechnic halfway across the country. On Friday we held
another hour’s training to build on our strengths and to try to
fix some of the deficiencies we had discovered in that
scrimmage.
On Friday evening we attended a pre-tournament reception at the
SCC, and from then on it was down to business.
Singapore
From Westerners’ perspective, the
history of Singapore began in 1819 when Sir Stamford Raffles
established a trading station there; in 1824 Singapore was ceded
“in perpetuity” to the East India Company by the Sultan of
Johore.
In 1942 Singapore was occupied by Japan, returning to the
British fold after World War II. It formed part of
Malaysia at this nation’s founding in 1961, but separated from
Malaysia and became a fully independent nation in 1965.
Singapore lies right between Malaysia and Indonesia, but unlike
both its Muslim neighbors, Singapore is more than 75% ethnic
Chinese and Buddhist. The other 25% include significant
Malay and Indian communities.
Singapore has a population of 3.3 million in an area of 264
square miles. It is considered one of the safest countries
in the world. It’s quite prescriptive: chewing gum is
illegal and caning is a legalized form of punishment.
(Though, try as he might, Beet McKinnon was unable to find a
“caning cane” to bring home as a souvenir.) Despite its
renowned safety, however, because of Bali there were armed
guards guarding the tournament and searching spectators’
bags. (I for one was thankful; there are just too many
people out to kill whatever Americans they can find, and we were
the only American team at the tournament.)
There are a lot of ethnic areas in Singapore, and although we
didn’t get to too many, Beet and I visited Little India, which
was in preparation for its Indian New Year celebration (Monday
November 4 was a national holiday and “Happy Deepavali” signs
were everywhere), ate at the Banana Leaf Apolo restaurant and
marveled at the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple.
Food
At meal times Singapore seems like
one big food court. Many of us spent every meal sampling
some of its marvelous cuisine, which basically comprises food
from every Asian country. Whether Burmese (the tom yan
prawn soup was just about the hottest soup I’ve ever tasted – I
needed two bowls of rice and an entire package of Kleenex to
finish it), Malay, Northern Indian, Indian Muslim, Nepalese,
Japanese, Chinese, etc., the food was universally cheap and
yummy. There were those in the tour party that opted for
KFC, and I pray they are forgiven.
Even the smoothies were unique. I had a mango smoothie,
and it came with a ½-inch diameter straw, with which one
is able to suck up the large chunks of mango from the bottom of
the drink.
Competition
Atlantis became the first team from
the USA to participate in the SCC Sevens’ in its 55-year
history. Our inexperience was obvious in our nervous play
in the first game, which we lost 24-0 to Linton (New
Zealand). Although we had three tries called back (our
video recording of the game appears to have been made through
different lenses from the ref’s), nevertheless we did not play
very well. Our 26-5 victory over the Wanderers – featuring
a hat trick by Mike Wilson – was decisive but not pretty, and
our 47-0 loss to Davetalevu was sadly predictable.
As the final Saturday games progressed it seemed as though we
would sneak into the Ablitt Cup competition, but South Coast
Warriors’ final minute scores against Hong Kong FC elevated them
to the 16th Cup seed and knocked us down to 17, the #1 Bowl
seed.
The #1 Bowl seeding was justified as we knocked out Kurumi of
Japan 31-0, followed by a repeat match with the Wanderers which
we won 50-0 (had we done that the previous day we would have
been in the Ablitt Cup competition). The Bowl final was
against SCC. The host team, with memories of Bali fresh in
their mind and bolstered by their supporters, was emotionally
charged, but we had too much firepower and won a convincing
50-10 final in which both Wilson and Kohlbeck had two tries.
Bowl Final Lineup: Atlantis
1. Kohlbeck ***
2. Hilleque
3. Brill (capt) *
4. Petri
5. Wilson **
6. Davis
7. Frey
* replaced by Greer
** replaced by Cruz
*** replaced by Kurucake
Atlantis
Individual Scoring:
Name
|
Tries
|
Conv
|
Points
|
Wilson
|
5
|
11
|
47
|
Frey
|
5
|
0
|
25
|
Cruz
|
3
|
1
|
17
|
Hilleque
|
3
|
0
|
15
|
Kohlbeck
|
3
|
0
|
15
|
Greer
|
2
|
1
|
12
|
Davis
|
1
|
3
|
11
|
Petri
|
2
|
0
|
10
|
Brill
|
1
|
0
|
5
|
Total
|
25
|
16
|
157
|
Opponents
|
14
|
8
|
86
|
Thanks
As always, teams on tours owe a lot
to people that help. From our own tour party, thanks go
out to the unheralded nonplayers, manager Pedro and physio Beet,
both for service to the team above and beyond. Steve
McCullough of the SCC was a great resource, particularly in the
days following the Bali massacre when he obviously had many
things on his mind besides answering my questions.
Finally, thanks to the entire SCC tournament committee for
providing a great venue for us sevens addicts.
Thank you, sevens, for yet another reaffirmation of your
greatness!