Saturday October 13, 2012
Seven potential winners in next month’s Cobra Rugby 10s
By AFTAR SINGH
KUALA LUMPUR: Seven of the 16 teams featuring in this year’s 43rd HSBC-Cobra Rugby 10s tournament next month are being touted as potential winners.
That’s how interesting and competitive this year’s tournament, scheduled to be held at the MBPJ Stadium in Kelana Jaya on Nov 10-11, will be.
The favourites are defending champions Penguins International of England, last year’s finalists Cobra, Devateluva of Fiji, Northlink of South Africa, Frogies of France and Massey and Ponsonby of New Zealand.
Last year, Penguins beat Cobra 12-10 in the final.
Cobra team manager Boon Hoon Chee said they will rope in six New Zealanders and two Fijians to boost their chances this year. Five of the seven remaining players are national players.
“And for the fifth consecutive year Cobra will be trained by former All Blacks Duncan Robertson and Jeff Matheson,” said Hoon Chee, who is also the vice-president of Cobra.
“Under their guidance, Cobra have been finalists for the last five years and won the tournament in 2008.”
He said that the eight foreign players and two coaches from New Zealand will be here on Oct 21 to prepare the team for three Rugby 10s tournament. The other two are the Borneo 10s (Oct 27-28) and the Singapore Cricket Club 10s (Nov 3-4).
Besides Cobra, the other local clubs featuring in the tournament are NS Wanderers, ASAS and Borneo Eagles.
HSBC will again be the main sponsor for the tournament.
Roni Abdul Wahab, managing director, head of Global Banking, HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd, later presented a mock cheque for RM250,000 to Tan Sri Krishnan Tan, the organising chairman.