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Look inside the book
The 1978 Singapore rugby team made history by beating the powerful Kiwis, clinching the Malaysian Rugby Union Cup and winning a treble of national awards. Yet their triumphs were all but wiped from sporting history.
Veteran sportswriter Godfrey Robert traces the blood, sweat and tears behind an extraordinary decade for Singapore rugby, starting in 1972 with the controversial first all-Asian team and culminating in another unthinkable victory in 1982. When We Were Kings includes first-person accounts from the heroes of the day: Coach Natahar Bava, skipper Song Koon Poh, Singapore Rugby Union boss Howard Cashin and many others.
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"This great rugby story not only has to be told, but retold again and again."
—D. J. Forbes, former captain of the All Black Sevens, Rugby World Cup champions 2013
"This was a team to be admired. A team to be hailed."
—S. S. Dhillon, former Secretary-General, Singapore National Olympic Council
The players "represented Singapore in all its hues".
—Shahiron Sahari, former rugby club player and journalist
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Godfrey Robert is a veteran journalist who has written for newspapers and magazines for almost 49 years. He was sports editor of The Straits Times from 1982 to 1999, after which he became senior writer before moving to the now-defunct tabloid Streats as deputy editor. During his long journalistic stint, he covered several Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and football's World Cup and European Championship. In 2006, he joined The New Paper as consulting editor and is currently a freelance writer for The Business Times and golf publications.
