Abu Dhabi: The AGRFU Academy teams wound up their preparations for the first of their two back-to-back internationals at both U-16 and U-18 levels on a hot and muggy morning at the Yio Chu Kang Stadium (venue of the matches) in Singapore on Monday.
According to an AGRFU press release, U-18 coach, Gaith Jalajel was very happy with the way his charges have adapted to conditions saying that "the idea of having a warm-up match the morning after we arrived was fantastic.
"We have to thank the players and Staff from St Andrews College for providing us with opposition as well as allowing us the use of their facilities." Jalajel was pleased to see his side run in 9 tries while maintain their playing structures throughout to end with a 58 - 3 victory.
Martin Southern, the tour manager said: "We realise that the Singaporean teams will be a lot stronger than this but were happy with the way the teams performed bearing in mind that the U16's fixture kicked off at what was effectively 0500 UAE time less than 12 hours after landing here".
Bruce Morton, the U16 Coach picked up on that theme when commenting on his team's slow start against St Andrews.
"We played about 90 per cent of the first half in our half of the field and turned round with a slender 5 - 3 lead. The team did however seem to start picking up in the second half and ran in a further 3 well constructed tries to finish with a 22 - 3 victory. Remember that for a lot of these players it is their first experience of a rugby tour ... will stay in their memories forever.".
