Category: Malaysia

Succesful Super Week Course create history

2 July 2018 – The first ever Super Week Courses received a great participation from the Malaysia Rugby enthusiastic. 69 participants made it to the courses which started on 29 June until the 1st July 2018.

Malaysia Rugby Union fulfils the Training and Education need in rugby as they conducted 4 courses. They covered all 4 aspects; Level 1 Strength and Conditioning, Level 1 match officiating 15s, Level 1 First Aid in Rugby as well as Level 2 in Coaching 15s. Kuala Lumpur Rugby Union also organised the Level 1 Coaching 15s on the same date in order to fulfil the request.

All the courses by the MRU took place at the TUDM, Kuala Lumpur while KLRU courses took place at Victoria Institution, Kuala Lumpur.

10 Educators, as well as 2 Trainers, spend their weekend, sharing the knowledge with the participants. It is also great to see 7 women made it to the courses with women participation in rugby is evolving well after our national women team won Bronze in 2017 SEA Games.

All the participants were lucky as they received guidance by Malaysia rugby greats such as Farid Rahman (former national player), Mohd Mazuri (Former national head coach and player) and Dr Azril (Malaysia National Team Doctor).

The Super Week organiser, Hisham Ibrahim was certainly delighted to see everything went smoothly. “Each and everyone is part of the new history in MRU teaching and education. I would like to thank everyone involved from the planning to the end of this”, shared Hisham.

This is not the end of the course as there will be another FAiR course will take place in the upcoming week.

You can get the latest update on the upcoming courses via Educator Official Facebook page and Instagram.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/educatormalaysiarugby/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/educatormalaysiarugby/

Photos Courtesy of Hisham Ibrahim

At least quarter final

16 February 2018 – After failed to win a single game in their first tournament in Sydney, Malaysia 7s head coach, Saizul Hafifi is expecting a much better result in their second outing. Malaysia 7s team will take part in tomorrow Lake Macquarie 7s Rugby Tournament.

Malaysia 7s is one of the 16 teams to compete for the Premier Men Division title. Malaysia is pool C alongside the New South Wales Development team (Iconz NSW), Randwick 1 and Roos.

Iconz NSW will be the first team to face Malaysia at 9.18am local time. Malaysia then will take on Roos before completing the group matches with Randwick 1 at 12.30pm

Saizul Hafifi will be glad to welcome back 4 players who have just arrived in Sydney. Siddiq Amir Jalil, Dzafran Asyraf and Khairul Abdillah joined the team after they completed their SUKIPT. Zulhisham Rasli was also on the plane with the trio as the four of them will be hoping to improve the team performance.

“We are hoping to make it into the quarter-final. We will take one game at a time as we want to see improvement in term of understanding among players.” shared Saizul Hafifi.

Malaysia 7s team is preparing for two big tournaments later this year. They will be in Gold Coast, Australia for the Commonwealth Games in April before heading to Indonesia for Asia Games.

You can follow the latest result of Malaysia team via this link http://ragbionline.com/team/malaysia/malaysia-7s/

Photos by Malaysia 7s team

Outstanding week for Johor rugby

23 January 2018 – Univeristi Putra Malaysia (UPM) saw the biggest rugby community gathering last weekend as more than 200 teams joined the National Rugby Development Carnival (NRDP). Teams from all over Malaysia took part in 13 categories from the Under 11 to Under 17 age group for both girls and boys.

Johor rugby is the biggest winner for the festival. They showed their power by winning 6 out of 13 categories. Johor Sports School, SMK Tun Hussein Onn (THOR) won 2 categories. THOR Under 13 team is miles ahead of the other team as they strolled until the final. They even win the final match with ease as they overcame Bengals RC by a fine margin, 31 – 0. THOR secured their second title as their Under 14 teams trashed STJ 31 – 0 in the Under 14 final.

English College won the Under 15 title. EC overcame Victoria Institution 10 – 0 to secure the title. Their Under 14 brother also have an impressive tournament as they finish third as they got better of SMK King Edward 7 from Perak.

SK Permas Jaya of Johor Bharu won the Under 11 category. They won it by a single try as they beat SK Bison in the final.

Girls team from Johor also had a good outing. They won two out of 4 women categories in touch rugby during the NRDP. MRSM Johor Bharu showed their good handling as they beat Tunku Khursiah 1 – 0 in the final. SMK Pulai Perdana lifted the Under 17 Touch Rugby title as they overcame SMK Taman Kosas 1 – 0 in a closely contested final.

School, club as well as state development teams were also in action during the weekend. Johor won two out of three titles in the Rembau 7s which took place at the KV Dato’ Lela Maharaja.

Johor Under 21 who are preparing for the upcoming SUKMA Perak later this year got the perfect preparation tournament. They beat Negeri Sembilan Under 21 team to win the Rembau 7s Under 21. Johor overcame Negeri Sembilan 21 – 7.

Their younger brother secured the Rembau 7s Under 19. Johor Under 19, the development team for SUKMA Johor 2020, shocked top-seeded team, Sekolah Sukan Tunku Mahkota Ismail in the final. They beat SSTMI 19 – 12 in the final.

Photos by Muizzuddin Yahaya and Zainuddin Mamat/Ragbionline

NS League to kick off this week

12 January 2018 – Negeri Sembilan will be the first state to start the rugby state league in 2018. The 2018 Negeri Sembilan Rugby League will start on 13th January 2018.

12 teams have confirmed their participation in this year edition. This includes last year champion, Gunners RC who is in group A alongside IJED, Troopers RC, and SASEROBA RC. Gunners RC will open this year account against IJED as the very first match of the season at the Field A, King George V.

Group B consisted of Seremban Old Boys RC, OGA, IPG Teknik Enstek and Lycan OB. One of the biggest clubs in Malaysia, NS Wanderers is in group C. They will face Wiseguys RC, Home of Warriors (HOW), and ANSARA Klawang.

Only 4 matches will play each week and that will come from 2 groups. The group matches will take place from 13th January 2018 until 10 February 2018. The final match is scheduled to take place on 10th March 2018.

All 32 matches will take place at the King George V field.

8 core team in 7s Series

3 January 2017 – The first ever 3 series for National 7s is set to take place this March. Much are anticipate from the even with the introduction of series should set the nation to have a much bigger pool of 7s players.

8 teams will be the core teams for the series in Men category. The selection of the team is based on their performance in the last edition of National 7s in Ipoh, Perak.

The 8 core teams:
1. Kelantan
2. Perak
3. Kedah
4. Sabah
5. Johor
6. Kuala Lumpur
7. Selangor
8. Negeri Sembilan

The first series in Melaka will also saw the addition of 4 more invitational teams. However, this 4 teams will not take part in Johor.

1. Atm
2. PDRM
3. Putrajaya
4. Melaka

The final series in Ipoh will see the most team as the 8 core team will compete against another 10 teams which wish to qualify as the core team in 2019. It will be interesting to see minnow go against the national powerhouse such as Kelantan, Perak, Kedah, and Sabah.

There is still no news on the list of the team for the women category. All the 3 series will have women category and we expect to see more team fight for the title in 2018 edition.

The last series in Ipoh will see the introduction of another new category. With women development in sight, the Union is set to introduce the Women Under 20 for the very first time in Ipoh.

Kelantan Under 20 will be hoping to retain the Under 20 title the won in 2017 in Ipoh. It will be another great final series in Ipoh as they set to have 4 categories, one more from last year edition.

What 2018 have in store

2 January 2018 – 2 days into 2018 and most of the rugby fans in Malaysia are eager to watch their favorite sport. 2018 will a be a busy year for local clubs, school as well as for Malaysia national team. With the number of the big tournament, Malaysia will be eager to continue their fine run on the international level.

JANUARY

– National Rugby Development Program (NRDP) will have their biggest rugby carnival. It will take place at the University Putra Malaysia (UPM) on 20 – 21 January 2018. 172 teams have confirmed their participation so far in 13 categories.

– 8 teams will participate in the first-ever Veteran Alumni Rugby League. They will be having a match for a month with the final match is expected to take place right after the ARC. Teams like ASAS and STJ are expected to do well.

FEBRUARY

– The Premier 7s is back as MCKK Premier 7s will be having their tournament. It is expected to be bigger than ever with the tournament able to attract the top team from all over Malaysia and even from Hong Kong. The tournament will be on 24 – 25 February.

– Top IPT team will be playing against one another in the SUKIPT 7s. The 3 days tournament will be on 6 – 8th February.

MARCH

– Malaysia will be having the first ever 3 National 7s Series. Melaka, Johor, and Perak will be the three host for the first ever series. Both Men and Women category will be available for all series with another two extra categories are on the card for the final series in Ipoh, Perak.

– Borneo 7s will surely attract top teams from all over the world with their top class tournament. Fans will travel to Sandakan as the tournament will take place from 16, 17 and 18 March 2017.

APRIL

– Malaysia 7s team will take part in the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia. The team is expected to gain valuable experience from the outing as they will take on numbers of the big team such as Australia, England, Fiji and New Zealand.

– Malaysia 15s team will face South Korea in the first match of Asia Rugby Championship Premier at the end of the month. The match is scheduled to take place at the National Stadium Bukit Jalil.

MEI

– Malaysia 15s is set to face 3 more Asia Rugby Championship Premier matches in May. They will face Hong Kong in National Stadium Bukit Jalil before the return leg in South Korea and Hong Kong within the weeks time.

JUNE

– Ramadhan Kareem. Malaysia will have another game against the winner of Oceania should they top the ARC Premier.

JULY

– The brand new season for Malaysia Rugby League. It is set to be bigger than ever with only 8 teams expected to compete in the top league. The league is scheduled to start on 7th July with the 8th week ok the league will be in the first week of September.

AUGUST

– Malaysia 7s team will be having their second biggest tournament of the year. They will compete in the Asia Games 2018. The 2018 Asia Games will take place in Palembang, Indonesia from 28 to 31 August.

– Asia Rugby U20 is set to take place in Hong Kong. Both men and women team will be expected to improve on 2017 performance since both teams did not fulfill their expectation.

SEPTEMBER

– Rugby is also part of the 2018 SUKMA Perak. The Under 21 state team will compete against one another to bag gold medal.

– Langkawi 7s and NS Royal will also take place in the September with the first will take place in the first week while NS Royal will be on 22 and 23rd September.

– Johor will start the campaign to defend their Agong Cup title in the very last week of September.

– The first and second round of Asia Rugby Sevens Series. The first will take place in Hong Kong while the second will be in South Korea.

OCTOBER

– Agong Cup continues and will enter the knockout round by the end of the month.

– The third series for Asia Rugby Sevens Series. Sri Lanka will host the last round of the tournament.

NOVEMBER

– The final of Agong Cup will take place in the first week of November. There is no news on where will be the location for the final match just yet. The had it at Sandakan (2016) and Terengganu (2017) and could set to travel south for 2018.

– The 48th COBRA 10s. COBRA set to continue this year successful tournament on 10 and 11 November. However, it is expected that they will have another mini-tournament for junior and women before the date.

DECEMBER

– Asia Rugby Under 19. Malaysia finished 3rd in Manila and they are set to take part in the Asia Rugby Under 19 once more for 2018.

King Kulai conquer

18 December 2017 – Kulai meet the pre-tournament prediction as they win the Sukan Johor Rugby Gold medal. Kulai had a bumpy ride en route to the final but their persistence and experience gave them the edge over other 9 teams. The tournament took place at the Tunku Mahkota Ismail Sports School, Bandar Penawar.

Kulai managed to win all 4 group matches. Their biggest test in the group came from Muar in their third match. Kulai opened the tournament with 24 – 0 win over Pontian before they overcame Batu Pahat 19 – 0. Muar gave them scared in the third match as they produced 2 tries in the second half of the match. Kulai who had 3 early tries stood firm to maintain their perfect winning record. Kulai beat Muar 21 – 12.

The champion maintains their fine form right after Jumaat Sola break as they demolished Tangkak in their final group game, 27 – 0. They cemented the first place in the group with the win.

Kulai dominance was helped by 4 national players in the team. Two of them played for Malaysia Under 20 during the Asia Rugby Sevens Under 20 in Hong Kong while another 2 was in Malaysia Under 17 NRDP team who finished second in the Cockburn 7s.

Mersing became the first victim for Kulai in the quarter-final match. They trashed Mersing 31 – 0 to book semi-final spot. The surprise package of the tournament, Kota Tinggi, gave their everything in the semi-final. They went toe to toe with Kulai but that was not good enough as Kulai advance to the final with 19 – 12 victory.

Johor Bahru who had a bumpy ride before they reach final unable to replicate their good performance in the final. Muhammad Abdul Karim and Sufi Hafizuddin’s experience gave Kulai edge over their opponent with Eddy Firdaus also showed outstanding performance as Kulai ran out comfortable 31 – 05 in the final.

Kulai received Gold with Johor Bahru have to settle for Silver. Kota Tinggi claimed Bronze as they beat Kluang in the Bronze medal match.

2020 SUKMA CEO who is also the president of Johor Rugby Union, Tuan Haji Noorazam Osman attended the tournament. Mr. Lee Nyuk Fah, the head coach of Malaysia 15s team who is also JRU Vice President also spend his evening and presented the medal to the winner.

Final standing :
1. Kulai
2. Johor Bahru
3. Kota Tinggi
4. Kluang
5. Muar
6. Mersing
7. Batu Pahat
8. Tangkak
9. Pontian
10. Segamat

30 players for Hibiscus

9 December 2017 – The Malaysia Rugby Union has released the 30 players list in the Hibiscus program. This special program is the preparation for the upcoming Asia Rugby Championship Premier in April and May 2018.

They already had their first and second training phase a few months back. Their focus for that phase was on the strength and conditioning. That session took place at the Institut Sukan Negara (ISN) under the guidance of ISN staff.

The 30 players list :

1. Amirul bin Sani (Kedah/Prop)
2. Mohd Syahmi Afiq bin Edan (Perak/Lock)
3. Amirul Mukminin bin Amizan (Kedah/Hooker)
4. Muhamad Amirul Aqil bin Kamsol (Sabah/Fullback)
5. Mohd Farid bin Sujari (ATM/Prop)
6. Syarif Nurhidayat bin Muzhaimey(Perak/Flangker)
7. Mohamad Aiman bin Jamaludin (ATM/Winger)
8. Mohd Nurazman bin Ramli (Trengganu/Hooker)
9. Muhamad Alif bin Al Hafiz(Trengganu/Prop)
10. Etonia Vaqa Saukuru (Keris Conlay/No 8)
11. Samuela Tamanisau (Front Row Club/Center)
12. Sae Magele Faalupega (Polis/Flanker)
13. Mohd Azmir bin Zainul Abidin (NS Wanderers/Winger)
14. Muhammad Amin bin Jamaluddin (Perlis/Flanker)
15. Mohd Syahir Asraf bin Rosli (Kelantan/Fly Half)
16. Muhammad Azim bin Nasri(Kedah/Prop)
17. Mohammad Rosmanizam bin Roslan (JRU/Scrum half)
18. Mohamad Safwan bin Abdullah (Perak/Flanker)
19. Nas Affie bin Mohd Salleh(JRU/Prop,hooker)
20. Muhammad Danial bin Noor Hamidi(N.S/Flanker)
21. Lawrence Petrus (UPM/Prop)
22. Mohamad Sofian bin Mohd Kamil(Perak/Flanker)
23. Muhammad Nabil Amirul bin Rizan(N.S./Prop)
24. Lokman Hakim(Winger)
25. Hamizan bin Rosli(ATM, Lock)
26. Avien Azreen bin Perman(Trengganu/Prop)
27. Muhamad Syabil bin Laila (Kedah/Prop)
28. Mohd Edzuan Manan (JRU/FlyHalf – Scrumhalf)
29. Wan Mohammad Asyraf bin Narudin (JRU/Winger)
30. Mohammad Syarif Saiful Aazwan bin Sudin (Trengganu/Flanker)

Malaysia will be having their first ever test match on this program this Saturday. They will take on the local club, KL Tigers on 9th December 2017 at Bellamy, TUDM. The match is scheduled to start at 4.00pm.

Mohd Syahir Asraf bin Rosli is expected to retain his place as the national team captain. He played magnificently in all 3 matches as Malaysia won all the matches against Sri Lanka, Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates last April.

Lee Nyuk Fah also keeps his place as the head coach of the team and he retains most of the successful coaching team for 2018.

Malaysia will have to take their game to another level if they wish to compete and beat Hong Kong and South Korea next year. Only the top team will advance as they will compete in repechage tournament for a sole spot in the 2019 Japan World Cup.

Photos by Zainuddin Mamat

Young Melaka ruggers profited from Under 19 team

8 December 2017 – Young Melaka ruggers took full advantage of Malaysia Under 19-second phase training. They had a mini rugby clinic with the young national team earlier this evening.

The young hibiscus is having their final preparation at Politeknik Merlimau, Melaka. 50 players from all over Melaka made their way to Kolej Vokasional Melaka Tengah to join the clinic set up by the Malaysia Under 19 players on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) capacity.

It always a good thing for players to share their knowledge as pass it to the younger players who will take their responsibility to represent the nation in the future.

The focus of the clinic was in the specific position where players should be able to have a better understanding of the task and their responsibility for the position that they play.

Mohamad Nazeer Mohd Nasherah, the head coach for the young national team also gave numbers of tips during the session. It was a good session for them to received guidance from the young upcoming coach who has achieved a lot in his coaching career.

This CSR was held in conjunction with the upcoming Melaka Rugby 10s Close Championship from 9 – 10 December 2017.

The 25 players will fly to Manila in few days time to take part in the upcoming Asia Rugby Championship Under 19 – Division 1.

Malaysia will face the United Arab Emirates in the tournament semifinal on 13th December 2017. The winner of the match will face either South Korea or the host, Philippines in the final which is scheduled to take place 3 days later. All the matches will take place at the Manila International School.

Photos by Malaysia Under 19

Much improved Under 19 team bettered Hornet.

5 December 2017 – Malaysia Under 19 finished their test match with a winning note. They dominated and comfortably dispatch Politeknik Malaysia in their third and last friendly match earlier this evening.

The team had a comfortable first friendly match against Johor Barbarian where they won the game with 9 tries. They unable to repeat the same feat as they went down to a very compact Singapore Under 19 team in their second match. They lost 12 – 15 in the match that took place at the Tunku Mahkota Ismail Sports School.

Malaysia ended their test match on the positive note as they overcame Politeknik Malaysia. Malaysia beat Politeknik 30 – 5 as they showed much-improved performance compared to their second match.

Only 27 players remained with the squad at Merlimau as they will likely to trim the squad even more. Only 25 players will be on the plane.

Malaysia will face the United Arab Emirates in the tournament semifinal on 13th December 2017. The winner of the match will face either South Korea or the host, Philippines in the final which is scheduled to take place 3 days later. All the matches will take place at the Manila International School.

Photos by Nazrulhad Hashim