National rugby team targets gold at SEA Games

KOTA TINGGI: The national rugby team is hard at work, with an eye on the gold medal at the 2017 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur this August.

Head coach Mohd Saizul Hafifi Md Noor said the current line-up was in the best possible shape, and the achievement would definitely create national history.

“It is the dream of the rugby association and National Sports Council for us to get the gold, but our main focus is to ensure we enter the final, if we make it there, we will do our best to get gold.

“We reduced the training intensity in the afternoon during the month of Ramadan, but at night we trained as usual and we will pick up the momentum after the festive season.

“We will keep training this way until match day,” he said in an interview here, recently.

According to Mohd Saizul, several friendly matches with local rugby clubs will also be organised as a warm-up exercise.

“We hope that by providing training to players with sufficient facilities, it can have a huge impact on them in the SEA Games later.

“All our players are currently performing well, we have no injury problems, and they are currently competing with one another to book their place in the final squad of 12 for the SEA Games,” he said adding the names would be handed over to the association by the end of June.

Meanwhile, team captain Zulkiflee Azmi, who will make his second appearance at the SEA Games, is determined not to repeat the failure at the Singapore SEA Games when the team lost to the Philippines in the final.

“In the last SEA Games, we got the silver medal after losing to the Philippines, God willing we will try to create history for the national rugby team.

“Our main challenger is the Philippines, and we will try to plan a new strategy to defeat them and ensure our team bags the gold,” he said. — Bernama