A late onslaught inspired NUS as they retained the Inter-University title with a decisive and deserved 25-3 win over Team NTU in a fiery-contested match last evening at Yio Chu Kang stadium.

The opening minutes of the game lived up to their billing with both sides pushing hard to create flowing attacking phases and territorial advantage. Both defences were relatively impressive, though, with NTU hooker ‘Badboy’ Yik and No.8 Spencer Soh both making their mark with some shuddering hits.

The Boon Lay Warriors opened the game strongly and spun the ball wide at every opportunity against a very flat NUS defence, but it was Team NUS who opened the scoring on twenty minutes with a simple penalty goal from fullback Mike Perry.

Referee Mohammed Azhar stamped his authority on the game early, coming down hard on both sides for infringements in the ruck.

Initially, it was the Warriors who found the greater penetration, courtesy of a 28th minute break by flyhalf ‘Potato’ Thiam after he linked up with ‘Lao Ying’ off a counter-attack. But once the NUS forwards began to find their drive and cohesion, especially from lineouts, there was a more assured look to their play through a sturdy platform.

Both teams made errors and conceded turnovers but crucial ones frequently had the Warriors scrambling backwards in defence.

NUS centre Jonathan Chen scored the opening try just before halftime, which Perry duly converted, taking a 10-0 lead going into the interval.

NTU started the second half with a hiss and roar as they looked sharper in set pieces. A catch-and-drive from a 5m lineout set up a promising platform; and from the resulting play, the ball was spun wide off a well-worked backline move, only for the final pass from fullback ‘Lao Ying’ to winger ZZZ to be deemed as a forward pass.

The opening points for NTU came in the 56th minute after ‘Lao Ying’ slotted a penalty goal. But it didn’t take long for Perry to respond with his second penalty goal just minutes after.

Fresh legs told a telling difference as NUS edged out the battle at breakdowns late in the second half. Two tries in the final 12 minutes to replacement hooker Thomas Zheng and the No.8 sank Team NTU, who had been looking to take the ascendancy through an industrious effort.

A turnover in the NTU-22 at the 68th minute cost the Warriors as the ball went wide and eventually found the winger who skated Thomas in untouched on the inside for Team NUS’s second try of the night.

A final nail in the coffin arrived 4 minutes later when NUS No.8 claimed a loose ball from a ruck just outside the NTU-22 and raced into open territory for the simplest of tries.

“It’s hard to take, but that’s sport. We could wallow in dejection now, but I don’t think that would be the right thing to do,” skipper Kevin ‘Salsa King’ Ang told Blogosphere reporters.

“We saw in the second half how tired some of our players were. Players like Hairy Mal and Stormy Normy have given all they can and we can be proud of ourselves,” he said.

“We played some good rugby and we just have to kick on from here. All we can do today is compliment a NUS side that played better rugby than us,” said Coach Lincoln Tan.