With only four minutes to go, Gibraltar forced another knock on from Singapore to gain a scrum. The ball was passed out wide from the base of the scrum and unfortunately knocked on. Singapore collected and score in the far corner of the pitch. A superb kick for the conversion brought the game to a 13 a piece tie and that’s how the scores remained for the remaining couple of minutes of the match.
During the final minute of the game, play was stopped whilst 22 year-old Luke Payas, who had suffered a nasty cut to the chin was attended to. Special mention should be made as he was taken off for treatment and therefore missed out on playing all 160 minutes of this tour’s rugby by just 60 seconds. Great effort from the young hooker. The players who did make the 160 minute mark are: Mike Milward, Luke Torres, Teddy Sacarello and Chuqi Cruz, an accolade to be immensely proud of.
This was a contest that will be remembered for dogged determination from, on paper, the underdogs. A group of 24 individuals who put in a shift as a team, worked together to attack well and defend even better. Speaking with various members of the GRFU party after the match, although disheartened by the draw, it was unanimous that Gibraltar had a lot to be proud of.
Honorary President of the GRFU, Denis Lafferty, said that he felt that “Gibraltar had won the game, even if it resulted in a draw.” Veteran prop, at 37 years old, and stalwart of Gibraltar rugby Nicholas Ramagge said he was proud of “the intensity and the work rate from every man”, that the players had “left everything on the pitch” and that “every player can be very, very proud”.
Photographs by kind permission of David at SingaporeMaven
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