On April Fools Day, four CIS students, playing for the Singapore Rugby Union Academy (SRU), showed passion and determination as they left an indelible mark at the Zurich All Girls Contact Rugby Tournament, in Hong Kong, the world’s biggest all girls 7’s tournament.

Players (Antonia Hekster (U14), Claire Matthews (U14), Kio Norris (U14), Annabel Cameron (U12) and I (U16)) committed themselves to early Sunday morning training for three months to train for this tournament. During this time, these girls learnt the sport and went through intensive training in preparation to face Hong Kong teams - who have had years of experience. The U16 team even lost one of its players, when I suffered a concussion just days before the tournament.

With under four months of experience, the girls were on the plane to Hong Kong, anxious, thrilled, but ready for the tournament.

Jim Parker, U14 coach, recalled that “in their first match Friday, facing the top squad from the tournament host in the cold pouring rain, the girls had their hands full and lost but were not intimidated and excited to play more. In their second match, the wonderful and unexpected happened; they scored their first try and held on for the first ever Singapore under 14 girls contact rugby win! Now with the confidence they could compete with any team, they played fearlessly. The girls played with such heart, in a closely contested game, and on the very last play, Antonia Hekster scored the winning try on a tremendous run. What makes the whole experience so remarkable was the way the U14’s played. Other clubs from Hong Kong commented that they could not believe, without any experience, how well and hard the team played.”

Singapore Rugby Union Academy (SRU)'s under 12's, 14's and 16's teams won 4th place and the under 19s team won 3rd, in their respective divisions. This made the SRU academy the most consistent club of the tournament.

Following the Hong Kong tournament, I won an exhibition match at the Southeast Asian Rugby 7’s against under 19 players.

Antonia Hekster, Kio Norris, Claire Matthews, Annabel Cameron and I continue to attend trainings at Centaurs Rugby Club and Tanglin Rugby Club, and will soon be training at CIS.