If you have the love for sports or the innate desire to be a sportsman, then you should continue reading this article. My written contribution to the Nanyang Tribune is no less than a sounding call for all NTU students to fully appreciate the current plight that the NTU rugby team is undergoing. Make no mistake that this article is written with the intent of seeking undue sympathy from all sectors of the Nanyang Community but rather a well-grounded perspective of a varsity sportsman playing a game otherwise known as “the gentlemen’s game”.

Rugby is often associated with rough knocks, thumping tackles and whatever adjectives that are conveniently connoted with VIOLENCE and PAIN. Sure, we do put in the hard tackles and endure 80mins of pain (mind you, much of the pain stems from the fear of losing, if any) through every match. Every piece of action is accompanied by its rationale and that is, simply: to protect our brothers on the field. I’m not exactly your layman well-buffed, macho rugby player that struts around your resident Nanyang gym and occasionally look into my reflection to admire the veins popping out of my biceps. I’m 70 kilos of fat and meat. I’m just your average joe and in fact, I do suffer the rigors of playing rugby overtime especially when I’m not well-built enough for the game. Altruism or an excessive thirst for aggression would be a probable thought popping up on your minds right now.

My point is, NTU Rugby isn’t about whatever ill-conceived misconceptions that your hall seniors have been telling you about. Rugby manifests NTU players’ passion for sports. We love our game, to the extent that the team has set up a blog to instill a sense of communal bonding within the team or even lending a hand at teaching Inter-Hall Rugby newbies the finer pointers of this wonderful game. The game bonds players from all walks of life through every pass, kick and run that the team executes in style. Rugby has seen such a strong following in campus over the years that almost all the 16 halls in NTU were seen training intensively for the much anticipated inter-hall rugby tournament in December.

The interest in the game has garnered support from several sectors of the campus population over the years. What is surprising though is that the school department overseeing the NTU rugby team has refused to acknowledge the welfare of its players. It seems that Rugby’s current status as a non-core sport is a well-justified reason for its limited funding. From their point of view, the fact that our annual competition consists of only 3 universities has reduced the significance of the game and thus a lower priority for support. Core sports such as Dragonboating and Soccer has their prestigious tournaments, namely the PM Cup and the SR Nathan Cup. It is therefore understandable for the school to plough $20k into the development of these sports. Mindful of our less than illustrious tournament now that the age old IVP has been scrapped, NTU Rugby has been lobbying for the continued support of the SRC to provide us with basic amenities like priority of field and subsidies for jerseys and coach, only to be rejected time and again. Mind you, working with a low budget annually for the past couple of years has earned us the top 2 positions in the previous Inter-Varsity-Polytechnic tournaments ever since their inception. Over the years and currently still, the team is still adorned by many outstanding National and previous age-group players eager to do their part to bring glory to their school NTU. Why is it that time and again the players are denied the opportunity to showcase their obvious talent and establish their status as the powerhouse of the country?

The team is unfazed by the recent decision of the school authorities to withdraw totally their financial support to Rugby. Such is the character of the NTU rugby team that we will prevail and toil in the field, be it rain or shine. Our coach comes down free-of-charge for every training session to align our efforts to his strategy and to ensure that our competitive fitness is well nurtured. NTU seeks to strive as a World-class University with state of the art facilities. Everyone student pays $12.50 per annum to utilize the benefits of the Sports & Recreational Centre. The 30 NTU rugby players would be delighted to have their well-deserved $40.00 each to pay for our logistics, as has always been the case in previous years. Would the $1200 requested be too much a price to pay for success? Or is winning the PM Cup and SR Nathan cup the sole benchmarks of success for NTU? I beg to differ.