The game is popular among expatriate workers from Commonwealth countries, such as the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand – and there are at least twenty such rugby clubs founded on this basis. While there has been some take up amongst other groups, and a long-standing effort to involve Singaporeans, including by Australians Peter Randall and Andrew Blades in the mid 1990s, However, unlike the other colonial
city state of Asia,
Hong Kong, rugby has not been quite so successful in Singapore. The tragic events of the Second World War and the
Japanese occupation of Singapore also disrupted its growth. Between 1945 and 1991, a regiment of New Zealanders was based in Singapore, and during those years they dominated the game to the extent that when they left, the Singaporean rugby scene almost fell apart.
Local rugby: 1970s & 1980s 1971 saw the launch of an all national U23 team made up of locals from the police force, armed forces, schools and local clubs when it played a curtain raiser game against a Malaysia U23 (which they won), to the main touring
England vs Singapore Select game. 3 Locals were selected in the Singapore Select Squad to play England at Jalan Besar Stadium on 3 October 1971. Leow Kim Liat of Police Military was to captain the side, but was injured prior and was unable to play. The final score was 39–9. The true local Singapore rugby story began in 1972 when the national team under the presidency of ASP Niaz Mohd Shah who led the charge to send a team made up of only of Singapore citizens to partake in the 3rd Asian Rugby Football Tournament in Hong Kong. The team was led by Leow Kim Liat and performed credibly with a 4th placing result. In 1975, the Singapore National team took part in the
SEAP Games in Bangkok and emerged 3rd winning a bronze medal. In 1977, under the presidency of renowned lawyer, Mr Howard Cashin, Singapore, as an all citizens national team, took part in the
SEA Games held at Kuala Lumpur and emerged runner up with a silver medal. The national team's best season was in 1978 when they beat the Singapore-based 1st RNZIR battalion team in the semi-finals of the
MRU Cup competition played in Kuala Lumpur, and then went on to win the grand final. Later in the same year, also in Kuala Lumpur at the
6th Asian Rugby Football Tournament, the Singapore all-Asian nationals team emerged third in Asia against all odds, after Japan and Korea. They defeated Malaysia, Hong Kong and Thailand in the run up to the third placing. For the stellar performance in 1978, the
Singapore National Olympic Council awarded national sports accolades to Singapore rugby. The Singapore all-nationals team won the 1978 Team of the Year award, the Coach of the Year went to rugby coach, Natahar Bava and Sportsman of the Year went to the pack leader, Song Koon Poh. This was a "Grand Slam" achievement by the game of rugby in the history of sport in Singapore. The MRU Cup victory feat was repeated again in 1982, and again the team was coached by Natahar Bava. Likewise, the 7s game also flourished in Singapore from 1977 to 1982. The Singapore all-nationals team played in the ever popular
Hong Kong 7s in 1978, emerging as Plate finalists. In 1979, the team qualified for the cup quarter finals for first time ever but eventually lost out to Western Samoa. In 1980 Singapore again qualified for the plate finals. In spite of all the adversities encountered, these achievements by local rugby and the SRU then were momentous indeed and showed that local rugby did flourish in the late 1970s and 1980s.
1990s to 2009 which closed in 2007 hosted many of Singapore's rugby internationals. Singapore rugby did not maintain the same levels of achievement into the 1990s. After a heavy defeat at the hands of Hong Kong in 1995, the SRU decided to appoint a full-time officer and four part-time development officers, and instituted a schools programme. Between 1995 and 1998, over a hundred schools took up the sport. Singapore competed in the
Asian Rugby Championship divisional tournaments starting in
1998, playing in a
round-robin with
Malaysia,
Sri Lanka, and
Indonesia. ==National teams==