The Knights Rugby Football Club, who are current champions of the Dr Hj Kamaruddin Cup, will be going head to head with the Miri Rhinos in the Brunei Rugby Football Union (BRFU) Darussalam Cup semi-finals today.
They are scheduled to play at the Sungai Kebun Sports Complex at 4pm. Despite being the new BRFU Premiership league champions, Knights forward Syaihan Hj Abu Bakar felt that they should not go into battle over confident.
"Although we are undefeated, we cannot write off the Rhinos chances of progressing in the Darussalam Cup, as like any other team they are contenders to the cup," Syaihan told The Brunei Times. "We saw what they are capable of doing on the field especially last week during their play-off game and last season by winning the Dr Hj Kamaruddin Cup," said Syaihan.
The Knights who defeated the Rhinos 46-29 in their league clash, will be heading into the game with the upper hand as they have had three weeks rest under their belts. The Rhinos secured their spot in the semi-final after they took out the Bandar Blacks 33-26 in the play off last Sunday.
"I would say having a longer period of rest (three weeks) would definitely be beneficial to our team," noted Syaihan. "It gave us more time to prepare the team and recover from our injuries," added Syaihan.
The Knights finished their league campaign with four wins, taking out the Belait Pythons 35-12, Bandar Blacks 51-10 and defending Darussalam Cup champions Universiti Brunei Darussalam Sharks 30-22. Rhinos manager Bunyamin Matnor believes that his team can make it through to the final if they aren't hesitant from the start.
"Hopefully the Rhinos can apply pressure from the first whistle and maintain our focus till the end. "If we are able to do that, the game is ours," said Matnor.
"Most have recovered from last weekend's knocks and are eager to play. "We have a few of our seniors available this Sunday and we are nearly back to our full strength.
"Semi-finals game against the new league champions will be a cracking game," added Matnor. The Rhinos had a poor league showing after they lost all four games. They fell 26-5 to the Pythons, 26-14 to the Sharks and gave a walkover to the Bandar Blacks.
