8am on Saturday 23rd January at Sekolah Pelita Harapan (SPH), Karawaci and the temperature was already searing as budding schoolboy Rugby players from greater Jakarta and Bogor arrived at the field for the 2010 Indonesian Schools Rugby 7’s Tournament.

The tournament adopted the Rugby 7’s format of the sport, which is now a focus for Indonesian Rugby since the sport was recently included in the 2016-20 Olympic Games.

A total of 14 teams were split into 2 pools of 7, which allowed the competition to be run continuously on 2 adjoining fields from 9am to 4pm, with the heat on and off the field rising throughout the day. With over 200 kids from 11 Schools across the Jakarta-Bogor region it was the first chance for many of them to experience what Rugby and playing in a competition is all about.

Indonesian players from National Schools shared the field with expatriate players from International Schools, meaning that the combined on-field effort of all the players, coaches and match officials was a huge step forwards for the Indonesian Schools Rugby community. IRFU President, Air Vice Marshall (retired) Pieter Wattimena was very impressed by the quality of the tournament and commented, “I became involved in Rugby so that I could help a new sport be developed for Indonesian school students.”

The Pool games played throughout the morning evened out the competition, with the Finals Playoffs kicking off after a short lunch break. All teams had a chance to win a trophy at a different level of achievement in the Finals.

Sekolah Bogor Raya (the youngest team in the competition) ended up taking the ‘Wooden Spoon’ as they were defeated in the last place play off. Although they were not able to score a point all day, Head Coach, Robert McKinnon was happy with the performance of his boys, “Some of my players are 5 years younger than their competitors, for them to be included in this competition is a great honor, the boys will gain enormous experience from this day. They’ll definitely be coming back bigger, better, stronger and fitter next year.”

Unfortunately Cita Buana were forced to forfeit their finals game against Lab School Kebayoran due to injuries sustained throughout their 4 grueling pool matches, thus handing Lab School the opportunity to walk away with the Saucer Trophy.

The Jug Final saw the Indonesian locals from Global Jaya come up against the might of Jakarta International School’s 3rd team, and after JIS scored the 1st try early on in the match, Global Jaya managed to assert their dominance to run away with a convincing 39–5 win.

If there was a most improved award for the day it would have been awarded to the BPK Penabur team from Gading Serpong. BPK decided they wanted to enter a team only 2 weeks before the tournament, so the team Coached by Andy Stephens (an Indonesian Rugby stalwart) and Gino Arseneault had a lot of work to do in a very short time period. After a tough first game BPK won their next 3 Pool matches and secured a place in the Shield Final against Darunnajah Pesantren. Unfortunately BPK’s glory run came to an end, with Darunnajah running out 17-0 winners. It should be noted that earlier in the day the Darunnajah lads had pushed the JIS 1st team all the way after leading against them early in the 2nd half of their Pool match.

The next final saw the JIS 2nd’s taking on the SPH 2nd’s in what was the most closely fought match of the day. This match was a see-sawing affair with the lead changing on several occasions and just as JIS had the match won, the SPH lads ran the ball from their own tryline following a JIS mistake, to score a try on the siren to win the match and the Bowl Trophy 15-12. Both teams could be commended on the spirit in which this match was played.

The Plate Final was a replay of last year’s Cup Final, with the JIS 1st’s taking on the SPH 1st’s. After the painful defeat on the siren last year the SPH lads were not about the lay down at the final hurdle, by asserting their dominance early in this match. In what was a tough match the SPH team proved that they are a serious Rugby playing school by winning the Plate Trophy 14-10.

Although the British International School managed to rack up a massive 230 points for and none against in their 4 Pool matches, BIS were unfortunately under strength for the Cup Final and had to borrow a few players from other teams as most of their team had to leave for another sporting commitment. BIS were up against another team that was also unbeaten in their earlier Pool matches in the French International School. The French team is known as ‘Ayam Legend’ and in the Cup Final they were too strong taking out the match and the 2010 Indonesian Schools Rugby 7’s Cup by a margin of 22-0.

Special mention must be given to Jean Layhaud from ‘Ayam Legend’ who won the ‘Top Try Scorer’ award with 11 tries for the tournament and Mitchel Choo from the JIS 1st’s who was awarded the ‘Best and Fairest Player of the Tournament’.

Apart from these two boys there many more standout players, especially a number of Indonesian youths who suitably impressed all of those present including IRFU Chairman, Stephen Barber who said, “I am very proud of the progress Sam has made with Schools Rugby development and I hope to see some of these players representing the Indonesia in the very near future.”

The success of this tournament and the IRFU’s Schools Rugby program has encouraged a number of people in the Jakarta Business Community to back Jakarta- Bogor Schools Rugby, including Graham Lawrence from Maxidrill Indonesia, who has agreed to the sponsor 2010-11 Schools Rugby Season. This idea is for all the schools to play in a series of tournaments at the various schools to decide the ultimate winner of the inaugural Maxidrill Schools Rugby 7’s Cup.

The IRFU has set a firm goal of selecting a National U20’s Team to represent Indonesia in 2011.

The IRFU would like to thank all players, coaches and schools involved in the 2010 Indonesian Schools Rugby 7’s Tournament for making it such a great success. Indonesian Rugby is also very grateful to SPH and its Staff for providing a first class venue and helping with preparing the immaculate pitches for the tournament. The Union is also very thankful to Coca-Cola for their supply of refreshing drinks and the tournament balls, plus International SOS for providing medical assistance and support throughout the day. A final big thank you must go to all the Referees and Tournament Officials who volunteered their time and worked tirelessly from start to finish.

It was a great day for Schools Rugby development and a fantastic day in the history of Indonesian Rugby!

Rugby 7’s is a fast and exciting form of the sport, Rugby, in which 7 players from each team compete to score more points than the opposition within 14 minutes of action.

The IRFU (Indonesian Rugby Football Union) will hold their annual Schools Rugby 7’s tournament on Saturday 23rd January at Sekolah Pelita Harapan, Lippo Karawaci, 9am – 4pm. (FINALS WILL COMMENCE AT 2PM). This is the second time that the IRFU has held the tournament, with Jakarta International School (JIS) narrowly defeating Sekolah Pelita Harapan (SPH) in last years final.

Rugby 7’s is an internationally recognised sport and has recently been chosen to be included in the 2016 Olympics in Brazil. The IRFU is also hoping that with the growth of the game in Indonesia it will also be included in the 2011 SEA Games to be held on our home soil.

With over 180 players from 11 schools, this tournament has grown from just a 5 team tournament in 2009 to a 14 team tournament in 2010. JIS, SPH, British International School (BIS) and Darunnajah will return to the tournament in 2010 and will meet newcomers from SMA 3 Setiabudi, LabSchool Kebayoran, Cita Buana, Bogor Raya, French International School, Global Jaya, and BPK Penabur.

The IRFU are hoping that this tournament will give the up-and-coming stars of Indonesian Rugby a chance to perform against the best players in the region. “With nearly 3 times the amount of teams competing this year the action is guaranteed to be 3 times as exciting” Says Fikri Muhammad Al Azhar (IRFU Board Member).

Although JIS are defending the title in 2010, SPH are going to do everything they can to make up for last years defeat in the final. “The boys are willing to put it all on the line to show up their international school competitors” Says Bruce Comrie (SPH Head Coach)

This is the one chance that these budding rugby superstars get to prove themselves on a national level so make sure you don’t miss the opportunity to see the action!

Saturday 14th November saw the heavyweights of schoolboy rugby in Asia gathered at the coveted British International School for the U’16s Rugby 10’s tournament.

With a focus on Rugby development Indonesian schools teams from Darunnajah, Cita Buana, SMA 3 and Labschool Kebayoran were also invited to participate.

A great day of rugby was had by all, as well as a great post-tournament function.

A special thanks needs to be given to Denis Clarke and Matt Deegan from BIS for organising the tournament and the referees from the Indonesian Rugby Referees Association for officiating the games.

Time Game Score Referee
8.00 UWCSEA v ISKL (Pool 1) 0-24 Steve M
8.30 Tanglin Trust School v BISJ (Pool 2) 30-0 John S
9.00 JIS v Darunnajah (Pool 1) 30-0 Chris R
9.30 KLASS v Bantengs Development (Pool 2) 30-0 Seb S
10.00 UWCSEA v JIS (Pool 1) 0-30 Geoff
10.30 Tanglin Trust School v KLASS (Pool 2) 7-17 Steve
11.00 ISKL v Darunnajah (Pool 1) 17-0 John
11.30 BISJ v Bantengs Development (Pool 2) 30-0 Chris
12.00 UWCSEA v Darunnajah (Pool 1) 30-0 Geoff
12.30 Tanglin Trust School v Bantengs Development (Pool 2) 30-0 Seb
1.00 ISKL v JIS (Pool 1) 5-18 Chris
1.30 BISJ v KLASS (Pool 2) 0-30 Steve
2.00 1st Pool 1 v 2nd Pool 2 JIS v TTS 12-14 Mark
2.30 2nd Pool 1 v 1st Pool 2 KLASS v ISKL 28-0 Seb
3.00 Consolation Game (3rdv 3rd) BIS v UWC 12-0 Geoff
3.30 Consolation Game (4th v 4th) Dar v Bentengs 24-0 Chris
4.00 3rd Place final JIS v ISKL 24-7 Seb
4.30 Final TTS v KLASS 34-7 Steve
Schedule and Results

Pool 1 Pool 2
UWCSEA KLASS
ISKL Tanglin Trust School
JIS BISJ
Darunnajah Bantengs Rugby Development

In what is a great sign for the development of Womens Rugby in Indonesia JIS invited and hosted the SMA3 touch rugby team to play and afternoon of touch rugby games last Thursday.

SMA3 (the 1st government school to adopt rugby into it’s curriculum) learnt greatly from the chance to share the field with some very skilled, well drilled and enthusiastic players from JIS 2nd and 3rd teams.

Pak Sim Cook (Athletic Director at JIS) is working hard to develop some local competition for his varsity team, and this is a small step towards his goal. JIS even arranged a bus to transport the SMA3 team from there school in Setiabudi (Central Jakarta) to JIS.

Pak Iswayudi (SMA3 coach) was very happy to see his girls running around the field against some healthy competition, and for some of them this was their 1st chance to play a game. “The girls are learning by doing” Said a proud coach Yudi.

Yudi hopes to bring his other team from Labschool Kebayoran to JIS next week for the next round of Jakarta schools girls touch rugby..

Although the Indonesian Harimau was only formed this year, It was a return to Singapore for a few of the players, who represented the Indonesian Barbarians at last years competition and won the ‘Bowl’ competition. In 2009 the competition was much stronger and the chance of bringing home trophies looked unlikely from the get-go..

Being pooled against the World Champions (South Africa Vipers), Asian Champions (Japan Samurai) as a well drilled team from the Northern Territory of Australia, was never going to be easy, even for the best of teams.

Coming up against the Vipers in their first game, the Harimau showed in patches that they are developing as a Rugby 7’s team in the 53-0 loss.

The 2nd game was against the Japanese Samurai and although the score line was 48-0 it was better than last weeks performance in Borneo against the same team.

The last game of Day 1 was no easier than the first two, up against the NT Mosquitoes the Harimau dropped their heads early and ended up going down 59-0 after a very tough day of rugby.

In a tournament full of world class teams, the competition was never going to be easy but the finals series on Day 2 is supposed to even out the competition… Or so they say.

Game 1 of Day 2 saw the Harimau matched up against East Arnhem Rugby club. Daniel Nugroho (Indonesia’s most capped International Rugby player) took over the captaincy duties, due to an injured Andrew White, and led from example from the kick-off making a string of bone-crunching tackles, resulting in Indonesia’s oldest representative player, Warren Wilcox (41yrs), falling over the line for the Harimau’s first points of the tournament and managed to convert his own try to take the lead 7-0 after 2 minutes of play. Unfortunately it was a one-sided affair after that with East Arnhem Rugby winning the game 42-7.

The 2nd game and the semi-final of the ‘Jug’ competition, was a bit more of a competitive performance by the Harimau as they faced the might of the British Army from the Flying Kukri’s. 2 more tries; A barnstorming run through the centre of the field by Indonesia’s youngest player Derek Eggerman (18yrs) and a graceful dash down the sideline by Papuan Septian Bunai, helped the boys post a respectable scoreline of 38-14.

It’s sad to say that the Indonesian Harimau are yet to record a win, but have faced some of the best rugby playing teams in world, so it’s only going to get easier from here.