| Fadhil Yunus |
BRUNEI Rugby will make an appearance in the Asia Rugby 7s Trophy to be held from August 4 – 5 at the Queenstown Stadium in Singapore.
The national rugby team have been grouped in Pool ‘C’ alongside host nation Singapore, Laos, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Other competing national teams are Thailand, Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Nepal and Indonesia.
The winner of the tournament will be promoted to the Asia Rugby 7s Series, where they will compete in a three series tournament against the elite teams of Asia 7s Rugby such as Japan, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Korea, Philippines, Taiwan and China.
Hong Kong will host the first of these series followed by Korea and the finale in Sri Lanka between early September and mid-October 2018.
Meanwhile, Brunei Rugby signed a two-year sponsorship deal with Tackle Asia Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian company that produces high quality rugby wear and other jerseys. Tackle Asia rugby jerseys have been used by rugby clubs in United Kingdom, New Zealand, Japan, Australia, Fiji, Germany, India and Egypt.
They were also the official jersey producers for Malaysia and Indonesia national rugby teams. Brunei Rugby have now been inducted into the exclusive club of Team Tackle.
The national squad, who will be flying today, include Awangku Muhd Ammaraniq Dhiyauddin bin Pengiran Omarali; Lim Shen Quan; Muhd Amirul Salihin bin Jufri; Mohammad Faizal bin Ahmad; Muhammad Abdul Wafi bin Mahmus; Ahmad Abillah Thane bin Md Khairul Amin; Awangku Muhammad Abdel Hakeem bin Pengiran Haji Runa; Ahmad Danish bin Ahmad Shukor; Mohammad Farid Haniff bin Mohammad Murad; team captain Zahirul Ghazi bin Jomari; Md Haziq Syukri bin Haji Zainidi and Hadi Safwan bin Haji Isa.
The trip is made possible by grant, sponsorship and support from Asia Rugby, Tackle Asia Sdn Bhd, Omnisports International Sdn Bhd, Fitness Zone and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.
The Brunei national rugby team have joined the tournament for two consecutive years and they had been busy with their preparations ahead of the latest edition since the start of the year.
According to Team Manager Syahwal Nizam bin Haji Yani, only 12 out of 25 players in the national squad had been selected to take part in Singapore.
The team manager also set their sights on the SEA Games in Manila next year and also expressed his hopes for the athletes to continue their training upon returning back from Singapore as they will be engaged in another competition in the future.
Meanwhile, President of the Brunei Rugby Football Union Dr Haji Kamaruddin bin Dato Seri Paduka Haji Talib said that they encountered vast challenges including awareness of the sport.
“Once exposed to the sport of rugby as well as in competitions overseas, players will help spread rugby to youth for sustainability and continuity to invigorate the sport in moving forward,” Dr Haji Kamaruddin said.
“I am very proud of the national team and they have been training since January not just for a particular tournament but continuous training to keep the momentum and then from May they have been working very hard,” he added.
“I myself witness them first-hand and this is a huge commitment which I very much appreciate. I pray for the national team to bring a good name to Brunei Darussalam through discipline and show that we as Bruneians are full of patience and are able to compete against any team.”
The Brunei delegation will also be joined by Rosmie bin Janadie as the head coach and Mukesh Asudo Punjabi as the physio.