Singapore kick off preparations for World Cup Qualifiers

Saturday 3^rd October will see a landmark fixture in Asian women’s rugby, when the Malaysian national team play their first ever full international. Their opponents will be their far more experienced near neighbours Singapore.

For quite different reasons this game is of huge importance to both teams. Malaysia will be taking that all important first step on the international rugby ladder; a huge achievement bearing in mind that the first women’s club rugby only began a short fifteen months ago. For Singapore, who has been fielding a women’s international team since 2006, this will be their tenth international fixture and will be used as preparation for the hugely important Women’s Rugby World Cup Qualifying Tournament, which they will host in early November.

There they will face Japan, on November 4^th and although Singapore’s international record on first glance makes pretty grim reading, with only one win from ten games, they have run Japan close in both of their fixtures, with a side who have qualified for three of five World Cup Finals.

Should they manage to turn the tables on Japan, they will face the winner of the Kazakhstan vs. Hong Kong game, with the winner qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in London, England.

Singapore national squad 2009

Several players including Esther Phua (injury), Serena Yeoh (injury), Gina Tan (unavailability) and Haseena Allapitchay (unavailability) cannot be considered for selection and their absence will likely see Koh Mei Giet start at hooker and Angelina Liu win her first cap somewhere in the back three.

The Malaysian Barbarians

The bulk of the Malaysian squad will come from the Malaysian Barbarians squad who took on and ran close Singapore ‘A’, earlier this month.

Singapore squad

Forwards:

Ang Weiyi (Blacks), Chan Jia Hui (SRC), Sophie Gollifer Ngin (SRC), Priscilla Humphries (Blacks), Koh Mei Giet (SRC), Lee Tao Jing (Blacks), Nur Azurah Mohamed Khalid (Blacks), Berni Ong (Blacks), Tan Sze Yin (SRC), Ailei Tandean (Blacks), Wang Shao-Ing (Blacks), Annabel Woo (SRC), Karen Yeoh (SRC).

Backs:

Aslinda Abdullah (Blacks), Fong Sei Yin (Blacks), Leung Waimun (Blacks), Angelina Liu (SRC), Tan Hui Juan (Blacks), Eunice Tay (Blacks), Kristy Teh (Bucks), Amanda Teo (Blacks), Wong Yilin (Blacks), Angela Zheng (SRC).

Images courtesy: Wang Shao-Ing and Susanne Olovsson

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