Round 3 of the “2014 Fez by Aphrodite Jakarta 15’s Series” was played on Saturday March 15 at Jagorawi Rugby Field, south of Jakarta. Match one saw the new boys of Jakarta Rugby, Universitas Negeri Jakarta (UNJ) up against the seasoned veterans, the Jakarta Bantengs and the second match featured perennial Champions, the Jakarta Komodos taking on the lads from Bandung United.
Although new to the game the UNJ boys put in a concerted effort in the early part of their match against the more fancied Banteng team stacked full of Indonesian National Team players including Marco, Alton Annar, Bobby Orlando, Yohanes Musi, Stephen Field and Chris Atkinson, before the inevitable flood gates opened and the match became one-sided before a final score of 96-0 was achieved. Despite the scoreline the UNJ lads should be thanked for their determination to put in a spirited performance on a day that they were always going to struggle on the scoreboard.
This is UNJ’s first year playing competitive 15-a-side Rugby and due recognition should be given to Iswahyudi who has done a great job training the young lads, getting them a playing kit and preparing them to play against more seasoned opponents in Jakarta’s premiere Rugby competition.
Bandung United led by skipper, Jeffery Tei came out of the blocks quickly against the Komodos and were unlucky not to score in the opening minutes, before the Komodos settled into a more disciplined mode of play, dominating up front with their larger forwards led by Todd Peate who muscled his way across for a try, then setting up play for the backs to score tries, including Gareth Rae and Adam Taylor who scored a couple of tries each and Chris Briggs who dotted down as well. Try-scoring machine, prop forward Darren ‘Shrek’ Aitchison also scored a brace of tries, including another seagull effort out wide. The Bandung United lads were not to be outdone scoring two fantastic tries set up by their flight-footed backs who absolutely bamboozled the Komodos’ defenders, going down 12-51 in the end.
Bandung United add a special dimension to the tournament in that all of the team members hail from either Indonesian Papua or Papua New Guinea. On the fly these lads can only be marveled at given their great speed and wonderful ball handling skills.
Round 4 of the “2014 Fez by Aphrodite Jakarta 15’s Series” is coming up on Saturday April 5 at Jagorawi. The following matches are to be played:
2.30pm – Komodos v UNJ
4.00pm – Bantengs v JJRG Samurai
Bye – Bandung United
The second match should be very interesting as it features the teams currently positioned 2nd and 3rd on the points table:
http://indonesiarugbyunion.pitchero.com/competitions-86/2014-fez-by-aphrodite-jakarta–division-1-9478/
*Many thanks to Daniel Nugroho for this photo.