Friends Of STAR

We, batch of 74 were introduced to rugger by a British volunteer. The HM Dato Khalid Halim made rugger as interesting as "the whetha is so clea, so we can play rugga!". We had inter remove game with another boarding school SDAR. We called the game rugger not rugby. I am sure being British orientated, rugger sounds robust and more "jantan" than rugby.

STAR celebrated the first MORI CUP winning in 1969. We were new to the school and to rugger.The players were pulled around the padang on the "kereta lembu". I didn't know where the cart came from but later when I myself helped STAR win the Malaysian championship, I never saw the cart again.

The introduction to winning the game by showing us the MORI Cup was fanrastic but we also saw the injury to Muhammad Salleh who passed away in the same year due to an injury while playing rugger and it was scarry.

We were playing rugger together since our remove team formation. The only player that left was Tan Sri Annuar Musa who went to RMC after his LCE ( we sat for lower school education exam). I can't remember why only Annuar left. After beating RMC Dato Khalid Halim (RMC Principal) offered everyone to go to RMC but En Ahmad Dahan ( who replaced Dato Khalid as HM of STAR) refused to let us go.

The 1972 U16 inter state rugger Tournament was held in Kuala Lumpur. We represented Perak. We couldn't get the double that year because the U20 team lost in the final. The U16 team beat Selangor to claim The Malaysian U16 Champion Trophy.

The U20 inter state championship in 1973 was held in Negri Sembilan. Customarily the team will accomodate many F5's but not this year. The team were mainly F4's. We played Negri Sembilan and we lost to a team comprising mainly F6's of SDAR. They also had a few King GeorgeV players and one of them Abd Jalil Burhanuddin (a brother of STARian Abd Rahman Burhanuddin) played for Malaysian Senior team a couple of years later with Arwah Adli Aminuddin, Abd Jalil Yaakob and Arshad Ahmad.

The following year we had a new headmaster. Dato Yahya Shafie was a "compulsive winner". Win and win only. We were moved to a centralised hostel. Every rugger player must stay together. Our meals were different. We were served with 2 half boiled eggs each. Lunch came with milo. Our ego were lifted.

Jaffaran, now a senior manager at Syarikat Air Johor, Rusli Idrus, TNB Subsidiary CEO and Muhammad Hitam, a landscape architect were the front men of prop and hooker. Jaffaran was heavy but Rusli Idrus was very mobile. Muhammad Hitam..........phew, he will come out of any loose scrum with the ball. Didn't matter how many bodies stacked on top of the ball, he will go in and bring it out for the scrum half Tahar Husin. Muhammad Hitam could do chin up, sit up and pumping exercises in the hundreds.

The scrum half, Tahar Husin a cleaning contractor an a bachelor will fly 3 ft above ground to pass the ball to our stand off, Dzawahir Abd Ghani. Tahar was always quicker than the opponent scrum half. He breaks, tries and made the two wingers jobless.

Dzawahit (Che Abang) now a contractor was the coolest stand off you can recruit. He drops the ball, passes go astray, kick to no touch but he was cool like ice. He was never disturbed with his errors. He recently had a bypass and when we visited him, he smiled and showed no stress.

Arshad Ahmad a teacher and a national rugby coach was a very reliable centre. Had played for Malaysia senior team the year before and was tough with his tackle. Commonly know as Pak Chad played many years for Malaysia will leave for New Zealand soon for a stint at Sports Management.

Tahar sometimes will play outside centre and Razali Karim or Muhammad Hitam the scrum half. Amin Blurr will then play hooker.

We have two speedy and tough flanker in Baharin Kasri a contractor too and Abd Jalil Yaakob, a stockbroker. Jalil also played for Malaysian Seniors since form four. He scored and frustrated his own wingers. We seldom need the wingers to work hard to get the points. But he dictated the games well and will call for the wingers only when the goimg were getting tough. His and Baharin Kasri's head were always "bonjol" because of the way they played, were always head first and tackle low. We had Ismail Hassan, Felda Refinery CEO, who played same style but he will charge like a bull. He used to carry sack of paddy on his back at home in Kedah.

Line Out were easy. We had Vice Chancellor of UTEM, Malacca, Ahmad Yusof Hassan a champion high jumper and Nawawi, an agricultural officer, a volleyball spiker. They were the second row players.

The scrum formation was stable. We had Mazlan Ariffin, A Senior Manager at Northern Corridor, to hold scrum straight and together. He did break occasionally and tried many points too.

Arwah Adli Aminuddin , An-X Trafic Chief with PDRM can run. He can zigzag and his wing play was superb. He also played for Malaysia.

Yours truly Mansor Awang had a very light role. Unless the going was tough, the number eleven jersey need no laundry for the next game. Sometimes, the fullback will be a bit adventurers and once he darted forward Nordin Osman a teacher, (roy) will be slow to sprint back and yours truly will take care of the fullbacking department.

We travelled to Malacca, Mr Kok Kee Chai as the coach for the Malaysian Rugger U20 Championship. Stayed at Malacca high school and had our semifinal of the U20 Rugger Malaysia School Championship 1974 against Kedah. It was our toughest game during our STAR Rugger playing years. Kedah were northern region champion. This same batch of Kedah rugger team moulded well and became the Malaysian Rugby Union Champion many years later.

We only won 3 -0 to walk to the final and yours truly remembered how we won because that 3 points came from Mansor Awang, an energy consultant. I Had concussion and I was taken to hospital. After a check up, an injection and Oked by the doctor, went back to rest for the final against Selangor, comprising mainly the RMC team.

When we reached the Malacca High School hostel from the semifinal game, we saw the whole Kedah Team lining out downstarirs and we heard a few slappings to the faces of the Kedah Players. The reward for loosing the semi final I presumed.

The final could have been like playing our twin STAR rugger team. RMC had Musa Omar, Rahmat Thambi, Muhammad Fauzi Mansor, Muhammad Hafiz and Nawawi Hassan but they left one year earlier. Only Tan Sri Annuar Musa was around and there were not much resistance. We won! We were the Champion.!

There were no surprises in our winning. The headmaster was a great motivator. The coach was fantastic. The cheering team had drums and songs of the latest heat. They wrote many new cheering somgs.

All other games were also won. This was the Championship year. We won hockey, soccer, athletics, cricket, volleybal and we walked tall until today. We also excelled in studies. We were the first 100% group. And 100 over students got scholarship to study overseas.