plan

:: Had a good talk with Mr. Low today after school, even though he kept me waiting for around 30mins. It's good to hear that whatever points I've acumulated this year won't get erased even if i make the switch to soccer. It's totally a personal choice. I've spoken to many soccer guys, especially Adzfar, Mat Hao, Peiqian, who's been really patient with me. I've felt so bad for abandoning them in year one, for this year's season, after having played with them for the matches. Now, it's going to be quite a rollercoaster. Nothing has been confirmed. I need to urgently speak to My Kadir, Mr Batchelor, the 2 rugby teacher I/Cs regarding this decision to switch to soccer. I really hope that the teachers understand. I also think it's best that I talk to Mr Blackburn, my coach, because I need to inform him that I wish to play soccer, so I don't disrupt any of his plans anymore. I really think I am already disupting his plans by choosing soccer, just like what my teammates have been telling me. The chance to defend the gold doesn't come often, especially for us the bunch of players who have suffered quite badly in our respective secondary schools. It still excites me to play rugby, but I really think i've achieved my objective of playing rugby, and that was to win the damn old Police Cup. Now the chance to defend it, but I'm refusing to take it? How? I've spoken to some teammates already, like Luneh, Pravin, Firas, joel leong, zach... Of course they want me to stay. Junren told me 'mat, u better don't quit.' It's very heartwarming to hear how much it means for us to stay together as a team. For we have been teammates for almost 5 seasons already. I still find it hard to leave them. They tell me it's going to be hard to find someone else to play in your position, and that I should be playing fullback cos it suits the team best for our running style of rugby, and that next year the batch that comes in isn't as strong as the ones that came in this year, that is my batch. It's really going to take a lot out of me to leave them but I really don't want to miss this oppurtunity to pursue something which I've kept inside of me for so long. After my rugby season was over in Sec4, albeit prematurely, I've told myself that that's it for rugby. Let's pursue something else. So i looked to soccer. Little did i realise that soccer by itself won't guarantee me my cca points. It's not a totally core cca. So people like Pravin especially told me to come for rugby training, especially with the new coach Mr Blackburn who had just come in. I enjoyed training a hell lot, and the company that the ruggers provided me, can't substitute that for anything else in the world man. But it saddens me even more when I was told, that i had to choose between rugby and soccer bcoz rjc doens't practise a student playing multi-sports anymore, except for exceptions. So i chose rugby bcoz i believed that we had the better chance of winning. In the end we won gold and I was over the moon. But it still saddens me to see the soccer boys go out so narrowly in the second round to mjc. How i wish i could make the difference. How i wish i could, so now after the rugby gold, i think i have a real chance. I really believe in the friends that I have in soccer, Zhihao Adzfar Peiqian SooTet KinYip and the rest, that we shall train hard and work hard to get to where we want. If we want the championship, there is no other way but to work hard and play even harder. Euro2004 was an inspiration. (This was just like Rugby World Cup in NOv,Dec 2003 which inspired me to continue Rugby in J1) So NOw is the time....


Guys, I love you a lot. You all are like brothers to me. I hope you all understand. Long live Raffles Rugby!


Now's the time for soccer. You were all there when Rugby won the gold. Now's the time to emulate that kind of success. Raffles Forever!