Taiwan won a back-and-forth match at the Unions Cup in Singapore yesterday, but the hosts claimed the trophy due to a better points differential over the tournament.
Singapore’s players celebrated with the cup, despite losing a match in which they seized the lead three times, but ultimately fell to a 19-16 defeat.
Their points advantage was due to their strong opening game against the other team in the competition, Thailand, who they beat 30-8 on Saturday last week. Taiwan narrowly lost to Thailand on Tuesday and went into yesterday’s match facing a steep challenge.
Photo courtesy of Wu ta-chuan
They responded well, opening the game with sustained pressure that should have brought points but for some wayward kicking and penalties they conceded.
Flyhalf Lo Yi-hung missed a penalty after a Singapore tackler failed to roll away from a ruck after 5 minutes of play. Taiwan kicked a 50-20 to earn the throw-in to the lineout, from which they worked a backline move that put winger Huang Yuan-cheng into space.
He was tackled and a try was denied as Singapore held the would-be try scorer up over the line.
Photo courtesy of Wu ta-chuan
Taiwan’s scrum showed some early wobbles, but their pressure continued as they were denied another try after 13 minutes.
The hosts conceded a penalty, this time in front of their posts. Instead of going for the three points, Lo opted for a quick tap and got to within 5m of the line.
However, his forwards were penalized for a double movement as they pushed for the opening score.
Photo courtesy of Wu ta-chuan
With the pressure released, Singapore swept downfield and fullback Ray Peh showed some deft footwork to step his way across. The conversion made it 7-0.
Taiwan immediately had another chance to get on the board with a penalty from a high tackle, but Lo again could not add the three.
The visitors were committed on defense front-on, but struggled against Singapore’s larger runners once they had broken the line.
Photo courtesy of Wu ta-chuan
However, despite some strong phases from the hosts, they were only seven points ahead at halftime.
Taiwan came out flying in the second half, scoring after only one minute through winger Huang Jian-ying. He was set free after a deep backline move and an offload in the tackle from his inside man, which gave him a clear run around under the posts. Lo converted to level the scores.
Singapore reclaimed the lead with a penalty, but Taiwan were once again over the chalk from a lineout when lock Sun Yu-shun ran uncontested from about the 22 to crash over in a tackle to make it 12-10 with the conversion going wide.
Photo courtesy of Wu ta-chuan
Singapore grabbed the lead once more in the 68th minute with their second penalty and stretched it to 16-12 with another a few minutes later.
From the restart, a charge down by flanker Huang Yi-kai led to him crossing, although he appeared to take a blow to the face.
Lo kicked the conversion from wide out to make it 19-16 with about six minutes to go.
The final minutes stretched out as Singapore retained possession seeking the winning blow.
However, Taiwan held their nerve and celebrated to the strains of YMCA.
Taiwan took 25 players to Singapore, but lost two to injury in their game against Thailand, so were forced to pick from 23 for yesterday’s encounter — a rare outing for the nation in the 15-a-side game.
Singapore themselves had not played an international for five years prior to their win against Thailand.
Their last outing before that was at the 2019 Asia Rugby Division 1 Tournament in Taiwan, where they were beaten 29-21 by the Philippines in the final.
“Elated is the word, man, I’m really happy. Definitely, we were very excited to play,” Singapore captain Russell Wong told Singaporean newspaper the Sunday Times after last week’s game. “It’s pretty amazing and an honor to wear the shirt.”
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