Members of the national rugby
team in action during a training
session. The national squad will
be competing at the HSBC Asian
Five Nations Tournament division
five in Cambodia next Thursday.
Picture: BT/ Syarif Rasani
The national rugby team has confirmed the 24 players that will be heading to the upcoming HSBC Asian Five Nations (A5N) Tournament division five in Cambodia next Thursday.
The Royal Brunei Police Force Sports Council have filled up the main bulk of the team with nine players.
Darussalam Cup champions, Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) Sharks also have a big share with eight of their boys qualifying for the squad.
National Rugby coach Ben Bourne has six of his Knights Rugby Football Club men in the team, with his last player coming from the Bandar Blacks.
They are scheduled to kick off their three-day training camp this Thursday.
Bourne will give his team one more practice match against the Barbarians this Sunday at 4pm at the UBD field C.
National team captain Md Azahar Awg Timbang thinks that their upcoming game will be an indication of how prepared the team are.
"Bourne has filled our time with morning, afternoon and evening training sessions," said Md Azahar.
"Our training sessions all had proper training management and we've had a month to train but that is still not enough at this level," said the captain.
"We only had two weeks last (of training) year and all we could do were drills," he added.
The national rugby squad have gone through conditioning training in the morning, weight sessions in the afternoon and field work at night over the last three weeks as preparation.
"The team bonding is a lot stronger this time round because we have spent a lot more time together.
"Even during intense training, there's (someone) that will keep everyone's head up.
"From what I have seen so far from my team mates, I expect us to do better this year," said Md Azahar.
Brunei will take on Cambodia in their first game next Friday, followed by a day of rest before the two teams lock horns again in their second match at the RCAF Old Stadium in Phnom Penh.
The last time the two sides played each other was in the opener of last year's edition of the competition.
Brunei recorded a 19-15 win over the hosts depite Cambodia jumping out to a 15-0 lead after Brunei committed one too many mistakes.
