A Knights Rugby Football Club player (C) evades a Belait Pythons defender (L) during their BRFU Rugby League match yesterday at the Sungai Kebun Sports Complex. The Knights won the Dr Hj Kamaruddin Cup following their 35-12 win yesterday. BT/ Saiful Omar
The Knights Rugby Football Club secured the Dr Hj Kamaruddin Cup after defeating the Belait Pythons 35-12 in the Brunei Rugby Football Union (BRFU) Premiership yesterday.
Contested at the Sungai Kebun Sports Complex, Md Zuhdi Khairi Hj Ramlee broke the deadlock with a try in the 23rd minute for the Pythons.
It was 7-0 after a successful conversion by captain Petrus Tuan.
The Knights only replied in the 38th minute through Sabinaya Chandra Rai and the game was tied after a conversion courtesy of Lim Shen Quan.
Lim gave the Knights their first lead after notching a try three minutes into the first half injury time.
Dinie Hj Abu Bakar converted to make it 14-7 at halftime.
The Knights came out storming after the break and it took only six minutes for Md Syafiee Matali to score.
Lim then made his second conversion to extend the Knights' advantage to 21-7
Three minutes later, the Knights added to the scoreboard through Md Nur Hafidz Putra Manjanai and Md Hijan Hj Amran was good on his conversion.
The Pythons were pushed back to their own half much of the game and Md Kamarul Salihin Kamalludin got his name on the scoresheet on the hour mark and it was 35-7 after Lim's conversion.
The Pythons tried to turn things around and Abd Qawi Hj Ramlee managed to score a try nine minutes later.
However, it proved to be a mere consolation as the Knights would go on to complete the round-robin tournament undefeated with four straight wins and lift the Dr Hj Kamaruddin Cup for the first time since 2010.
Knights forward Syaihan Hj Abu Bakar was ecstatic with the victory.
"Alhamdulilah. It is great to win the league and to go undefeated," said Syaihan after the triumph.
"Teamwork and communication on the field were key to the win. We picked ourselves up and supported each other," he added.
"It is a tough task especially against a good side like the Pythons who have a lot of experience.
"We have quite a lot of new local players. It is also good as we wanted to expose our young players," he continued.
Asked if they believe they can pull off a double by winning the Darussalam Cup, Syaihan replied: "InsyaAllah. We will try our best to stay undefeated. We have to concentrate and hopefully can get there."
Pythons head coach John Beart felt that injuries killed off their momentum.
"It was like we never got off the couch and we were cold in the opening 20 minutes," said Beart.
"Apart from the first try, we lost our patterns as we picked up six injuries then," he added.
"But we won't take anything away from them (Knights) because they were the better team and they deserved the win.
"We will continue to work hard. We will have to wait on the injuries and regroup for the Darussalam Cup," he concluded.
