Singapore Rugby Union

The Singapore Rugby Union is the governing body for rugby union in Singapore. It was founded in 1948. The current president is Terrence Khoo, who played for the national team from 1984 to 2000 and is a former national captain.

Singapore Rugby Union
SportRugby union
Founded1972 (1972)
World Rugby affiliation1989
Asia Rugby affiliation1989
PresidentTerrence Khoo

The Singapore Rugby Union is currently located at 900 Tiong Bahru Road, Delta Swimming Complex, Singapore 158790. This office houses all the administrative staff of the union.

Presidents
Years Presidents
1972 - 1975 Niaz Mohamed Shah
1976 Gurcharan Singh
1977 - 1984 Howard Cashin
1985 - 2005 Chan Peng Mun
2006 - 2017 Low Teo Ping
2017 - present Terrence Khoo

Coaches

In 2019, Simon Mannix took over as national head coach from Mark Lee on a three year contract.[1] In 2021, Mannix left the position to return to France.[2]

Stadium

The Queenstown Stadium is the on field home of Singapore Rugby and is where all major games are being played.

Incidents

In October 2005, it was reported that Sean Lee, a former financial executive of the Singapore Rugby Union, absconded with SGD$300,000. On the last day of his work when he resigned, the money was found missing from the Union's accounts.[3] In April 2007, the absconded amount was revealed to be three times more than what was originally reported in November 2005.[4] A total of SGD$1.215 million was misappropriated over an 18-month period by writing Union checks with forged signatures to companies registered under his name.[5]

In March 2009, nearly half of the national team went on strike citing nationality bias by the management, as well as not addressing some issues and concerns with training.[6] Ex-captain and incumbent backrower Rong Jing Xiang was also part of the players who went on strike. After the Rugby Union met with the players to resolve the issue, the Singapore Rugby Union agreed to address some their concerns and also to implement a "balance" in the ratio of local to expatriate players in the team. In final team selections, Rong was subsequently dropped from the team.

The national team is made up largely of expatriate players. The 2009 training squad consisted of 17 expatriate players, and 13 local players. The captain, Ben Wheeler, who took over captaincy from Rong Jing Xiang (Singapore's most capped player with 45 appearances), had only 2 caps prior to the Asian 5 Nations tournament. Critics are beginning to wonder if this move by CEO Ian Bremner is a right move for the development of rugby amongst the locals in Singapore, and if the Singapore National Rugby team is headed into the same direction as Hong Kong's National Rugby team, which is dominated by expatriate players.[7]

See also

References
  1. Hermes (7 November 2019). "Singapore rugby has potential to grow, says new coach | The Straits Times". www.straitstimes.com. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  2. Auto, Hermes (19 July 2021). "Rugby: Singapore head coach Simon Mannix quits post to return to France | The Straits Times". www.straitstimes.com. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  3. "Scandal rocks rugby union". 4 June 2011. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  4. "Former Singapore Rugby Union staff absconded with more than $1.2m - Channel NewsAsia". Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 4 June 2009.
  5. "On the run". Archived from the original on 8 September 2008. Retrieved 4 June 2009.
  6. "S'pore rugby team resolve grievances". Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 4 June 2009.
  7. "Singapore rugby: Too many expats spoiling the broth?". 1 April 2009.
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