SAHOCA vs AS Blues (Dec 09)

"There was never the top, so why (are you) looking up?" Sunny Cloudy by Delude.

Top left, guy in yellow smiling like a retard.

So last Sunday, there was a friendly rugby match between Alor Star's traditional rival teams SAHOCA (Sultan Abdul Hamid Old Collegians Association) and Alor Star Blues. I naturally play for SAHOCA.

The game ended with SAHOCA (predictably) winning 27-0. Not the biggest of scores, but we had very little to choose from. If you count the number of jerseys in the picture above, there would only be 19 players. That means only 4 would be on the bench. And with fitness levels nearing zero, 4 is not enough for normal games. Good thing the Blues were less equipped in the talent department, even though the bench could have formed another team.

The game reminded me of how I loved playing rugby, and it made me realize that that wasn't just it. I loved playing rugby with Collegians. I've been playing rugby with other teams before this, namely the Penang Blues and the Kedah team, but none of them can compare to playing with good old Collegians.

And the game also reminded me of what I didn't like about rugby. Some players (none of them from the SAHOCA team) play dirty. They punch, kick, pinch, squeeze where it's inappropriate, and verbally abuse. That's the dirty side of rugby and brings disgrace to the good game of rugby. These guys are (to me) not fit to play rugby because they aren't cool enough, or in other words, professional enough to carry themselves in a game of rugby.

When they're on the winning side, they (figuratively) spit in the faces of their opposition, unnecessarily rubbing salt into their wounds, dragging the loser's faces in the mud and laugh at them. When they're on the losing end, however, they come up with excuses, pointing fingers, try their hardest to injure their opponents in hopes that it would bring a small joy in their little hearts to have been able to break a bone or scar a face. These players are bad winners and bad losers. They don't even deserve to be called rugby players, in my humble opinion.

If that's how they handle themselves in something as trivial as rugby, imagine how they carry themselves in actual life. Because, like rugby, life hits you hard, and you're going to lose some battles, and not everyone plays fair. How are you going to handle yourself when you find yourself in a pickle? Like my father/coach says, how you handle yourself in life is often determined by how you handle yourself in a game of rugby.

Rugby is a good sport for good sports. It's a barbaric game played by gentlemen. Or at least it's supposed to be.

Cheers!