St Andrew's fire early warning
School rugby powerhouses send out warning they will be hard to stop this season
St Andrew's Secondary School put on a dominant display yesterday as they thrashed St Joseph's Institution (SJI) 55-0 in a boys' B Division rugby match of the National School Games at Evans Road.
The school rugby powerhouses, whose scheduled first match against Anglo-Chinese School-Independent (ACSI) was postponed to this Saturday due to bad weather last week, raced into a 33-0 lead by half-time and never looked back.
One of the standouts for St Andrew's was second-rower Dylan Jelinek, who had a quiet first half before turning on the style and scoring a try in the second.
The 17-year-old revealed that he needed to stand up and be counted after the SJI boys put up stiffer resistance in the second half.
"The SJI boys have always been tough to play against so I told myself I had better get into the right gear in the second half," the 1.80m-tall Dylan told The New Paper.
"They really played their hearts out and made it tough for us."
Dylan, who has been playing rugby for five years now, said that he still has a lot of room for improvement, especially his fitness.
"I hope to turn professional in the future so hopefully, you'll see more of me," he said.
His performance earned praise from St Andrew's teacher-in-charge for rugby Sidney Kumar.
"I messaged him to tell him this was the best game I've seen him play in three years," said the 31-year-old English and Physical Education teacher .
"We always knew that Dylan has the skills and is hardworking and fit.
"He's usually a bit more reserved so it's very good for him to come out of his shell."
Due to bad weather, the second match between ACS (Barker Road) and Raffles Institution yesterday was called off in the fifth minute of the second half, with ACS leading 7-0.
The match will be postponed to a later date to be updated on the Singapore Schools Sports Council's webpage at www.sssc.sg.
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