Singapore win first men's rugby sevens silver at SEA Games
He ran into a cul-de-sac of three yellow shirts, somehow weaved his way out, then skipped past another and looked up to see just one more player standing between him and the try line.
One sidestep later, fly-half Nicholas Yau was in on goal, but still needed to evade a last-ditch tackle from behind to score.
Yau's superb try and conversion gave Singapore a 7-5 lead against hosts Malaysia in the SEA Games men's rugby sevens final in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, and hope of winning the Republic's first-ever gold medal.
Backed by a vociferous crowd at the Petaling Jaya Stadium, Malaysia rallied to win 22-7, but the Singapore boys still wrote themselves into the history books - this was the Republic's first silver medal in men's rugby sevens.
Singapore had won a bronze medal on home soil two years ago.
"Nicholas is capable of doing something like this and, with that try, we were definitely in the game and confident of holding out for that gold medal that we were aiming for," said forward Sidney Kumar after the match.
"We knew that we just had to play to our game plan, keep the ball but, unfortunately, mistakes were made and that cost us."
Even in defeat, Sidney and his team were aware that they had achieved what no other Singapore rugby side had done before.
"After the game, while the Malaysians ran onto the field, we gathered in a huddle, facing each other," he said.
"The stadium was so loud, it felt like us against the world. But we knew that win or lose, we were together as one.
"That was the most poignant moment in the campaign for me.
"We knew we made history... but we were aiming for the gold medal. Despite the loss, the mood in the camp is still positive."
Sidney added that the team were grateful for the support they received from the fraternity, as well as from friends and family.
Singapore's women's rugby sevens team claimed a second consecutive silver after falling 17-10 to defending champions Thailand in the final yesterday.
With the men's silver, this is Singapore rugby's best performance at a SEA Games.
"We will try to cancel out the negatives and take the positives out of this campaign, and move on to better things," said Sidney.
"We have a young team, and we want to try and play at the Asian Games, which we've never done before."
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