Sidney Kumar On His Guiding Principles To Grow The Game In Singapore

Sidney Kumar took up the General Manager role at the Singapore Rugby Union in the backend of 2023, a move into helping run the game he obviously loves after spending a decade representing the national 7s and XVs men’s teams.

With one of the biggest weeks in Singapore rugby in May 2024 (the Singapore Rugby Festival Week), he discusses his genesis, his guiding principles for the SRU, and where he would like to see the union be over the coming years.

Singapore, for those who don’t know, has a healthy rugby history and culture. The domestic school system is strong with dedicated rugby programs, and the domestic rugby season has multiple womens and men’s leagues in XVs and Sevens rugby.

Photo Credit: Sidney Kumar – Singapore Rugby Union GM

Perhaps the country’s most well-known club, Singapore Cricket Club (SCC), also hosts a high-pedigree sevens tournament the SCC7s, which has attracted star players over the years. Singapore is one of three Asian legs of the HSBC SVNS Series and will host the SEA Games in the near future which also features Sevens Rugby.

Sidney Kumar – Rugby Genesis

Sidney Kumar started playing rugby from an early age (around 9-10), and as is the case for so many, initially it was just a fun physical activity to play with your friends and where the positions or rules mattered less.

“I grew up playing all sorts of sports but around 10 years old, there was an opportunity to join one of those interclass rugby competitions. I basically just wanted to take the ball and play with mates and score a try – that’s the genesis of it. I haven’t looked back since, I am 38 this year so I’ve been playing for 28 years and I’m still learning things about the game, of course. All my life I’ve always wanted to give back to the sport, it’s given me so much.”

Sidney finished school and went to university in 2007, he wanted to stay involved with sports and tried to make a living out of it through coaching but he also ended up going into teaching physical education for more than a decade, while concurrently during that time, represented his country from 2007 to 2017 playing rugby. He had made national age-grade teams but for the senior men’s team, his debut was in Sevens rugby.

At that time, Asia Rugby was called the ARFU and held the more expansive Asia Rugby Five Nations at the top end of regional rugby for XVs with the likes of Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The divisional structure of these tournaments have become overly complicated and irregular in our opinion, which means that fans and the media now have less vested interest as it is too difficult to understand and the pathways unclear.

From a Sevens rugby perspective, it’s easier to follow, with the Asia Rugby Sevens Series featuring the top 8 women’s and men’s teams, the Trophy is the division below and in 2024 a new Challenge division has been introduced as a third tier.

Singapore women and men will play in the top tier in 2024, with the Series getting underway in the backend of the year. 

However, the SEA7s also form part of the Singapore Rugby Festival in the leadup to the Singapore SVNS and feature 8 men’s and 6 women’s sides. The SEA7s were formed a few years ago to ensure there was regular rugby in the region, partially also as the Southeast Asian Games (which are held every two years) leaving the sport out in the most recent two editions held in Vietnam and Cambodia. 

On the positive side, the next three editions of the SEA Games should include rugby 7s – which is hugely important for unions to receive Olympic Committee funding and continuity of planning.

Watch the first part of the interview here:

Sidney Kumar’s Guiding Principle For The SRU

When speaking with Sidney, we read him a post he had published on LinkedIn around the time before he landed the GM role with the Singapore Rugby Union and asked him to explain his “Jerry Maguire” moment:

“When I was 10/11 years old, I recall specifically watching the anchor reds, the Singapore national team back then at the national stadium. I remember the legends playing at the National Stadium. I also remember watching coaches and rugby development guys going to schools with their grey Singapore rugby tops and I remember that at some point in my secondary school/jc life, it hit me that I wanted to represent the country one day. There were clear pathways for us back then and there were players we aspired to be.

These pathways are coming back and rugby is coming back. Our organisation, our teams, our players, our community, our kids are hungry for more. “

“It has been a part of me for the last 10-15 years, it is engraved in me and how we grew up learning the game, aspiring in the game, its roots, and looking up to our seniors and legends. I spent 10 years in education and not being able to connect those dots, I saw that void and I saw the need for having these aspirational goals for the kids coming through and playing rugby. 

It’s a popular sport, wherever you go regardless of whether it’s Singapore, Malaysia, etc. Rugby will attract people because people like the contact and the physicality, and being involved socially. But to create a means for kids and implement a program to make it meaningful for them to represent their country, that’s different,” said Sidney Kumar.

Photo Credit: Sidney Kumar

“When I talk about pathways when I was in school, it was very clear. One weekend, I was in the stadium watching the Singapore national team and watched the guys run out playing for their country, and since then I wanted to one day represent Singapore in one of these major rugby competitions. 

I asked myself when I wrote that statement on LinkedIn, what are the opportunities available and if they are clear and transparent to the kids, then I started to realise that the journey may not be so clear. So what are we going to do? Are we going to build up the structures for them? So that has been a guiding principle as to how to operate the Singapore Rugby Union with the support of the other members on the board.”

Of the national teams, the Singapore Women’s and Men Sevens teams had just taken part in some preparation matches with rivals Malaysia as they geared up for the SEA 7s. We asked Sidney what the goals are for both the Sevens and 15s national sides in Singapore.

“You mentioned the importance of having 7s as an Olympic sport, it’s recognized by all the Olympic bodies. And that’s how it translates to the local aspect of unions and the funding picture”, said the General Manager”.

He explained, ”In Singapore, it’s no different, and for our Sevens programs it’s always about the high performance and how we can win games. Those are the kinds of aspirations that we’re working towards. It is easy to put these targets on paper but getting the results?

Photo Credit: Malaysia Riugby – 7s Rugby – Malaysia vs Singapore 2024

“The challenges are unique to Singapore. We have our schools, which I would say have bigger budgets in terms of their coaching programs. The kids in the schools train three times a week and have proper strength and conditioning programs.

But what happens after school and what opportunities are there to compete? Are they going to do national service (which is a requirement in Singapore)? Are they interested in pursuing their careers or continuing to play? So then it all ties back into the aspiration.”

“I’ll be honest, it’s not a clear picture for the fifteens program.” (but better for Sevens Rugby). In 2024, the SRU has linked up with regional partners Thailand, Chinese Taipei, and the Philippines and this year will play a Tri-Nation series with Thailand and Chinese Taipei, with the plan to include the Philippines in 2025.

Sidney mentioned that funding is one of the main challenges for the XV programmes as well as the calendar which comes from Asia Rugby.

“As a union, we are still struggling to find ourselves on board the train. We came from the heights of Asia’s top divisions and dropped down. When I got a call to play for Singapore, we had test matches with Japan, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, and Sri Lanka, and it was awesome to see the local stadium full of fans. Ultimately, when you talk about community, you are talking about bringing the team together, the strength of the game, and the values.”

Singapore Rugby Festival 2024

Watch the second part of the interview here:

Of the Singapore Rugby Festival week, which got underway on 27th April and runs through to the SVNS at the National Stadium from 3-5 May 2024, the SRU GM told Rugby Asia 247:

“I’m really proud of how it’s come together. We wanted to see how we could support the SVNS with some ancillary events and then my team came up with the idea of having a festival and connecting everything back to the SVNS. All of the pieces came together and now you have an entire week of events…

We’ve got a women’s ten-a-side development tournament for newer ladies, you’ve got the schools Under 14 Sevens tournament, and the two finalists will be able to play in this National Stadium over the SVNS weekend, so that’s a big carrot for these kids.

We will be running three or four technical workshops, and then on Tuesday, the Titans Ruck n Rumble competition with age groups all the way from under five to the veterans playing rugby over a couple of days – and that’s mainly through the clubs. And then on Wednesday, which is a public holiday in Singapore, we’ve got BAC Beach 5s which is going to be a really fun outing. I signed myself up for a couple of teams.

Thursday is our main event for our national teams with the SEA 7s. We have invited primary schools to send their kids down, and I think we have 10 schools coming to hopefully watch and be inspired by their national 7s players.

On Friday morning, we have the T1 Rugby Carnival, which is really for the newer kids to come down and just experience what it is about. 

And participants are going to be given complimentary tickets to the Singapore SVNS – so it’s all tied in somewhere, somehow to the rugby ecosystem and encourage families to come down to watch – and hopefully, that’s something that will stay for many more years to come.”

On the opportunity of the U14 7s final teams and the finalists of the SEA 7s playing at the National Stadium among the SVNS fixtures, he added: “It’s quite an experience right? It’s still gonna be something they remember for the rest of their lives. I was fortunate enough to play in the Sevens finals twice there. In 2016 we lost, and in 2017 we beat Malaysia in the final. Until this day, I can’t forget it, so hopefully that will be the case for some of these players as well.”

Photo Credit: Sidney Kumar

The way the Rugby Festival has been planned means there is something for everyone, for the local community and for international fans.

Kumar said, “The rebranding of the HSBC SVNS is pretty interesting. The purpose was to improve the experience. With Hong Kong, which is Hong Kong, I don’t think anybody can replicate Hong Kong, and somebody asked me the other day whether we are trying to compete with the Hong Kong crowd – definitely not. 

I don’t think anyone would be silly to even try to do it. We really want to carve out a bit of a niche relevant to the Singapore context. There is something for the kids, something for the adults and a festival atmosphere for the young adults, and really trying to see how this fits in with us moving forward.”

Sidney Kumar – Singapore Rugby Union GM at the Cathay HSBC Hong Kong 7s 2024

“It’s extremely important for us to have the Singapore SVNS – If you take away the main SVNS and the festival, we can’t recreate that out of thin air. So this is an opportunity, with the support from all our partners, to try to grow the game and it’s huge to put this together and not worry too much about the funding aspect and not worry too much about a logistical requirement as we have a huge crutch to support the growth and market it right.”

In conclusion, Sidney Kumar said of his hopes for the 2024 Rugby Festival Week and its future, “You have an opportunity for kids to come and watch international superstars, for families to come together and it’s for everyone that has a bit of interest or love for rugby.

It is an opportunity to participate, to watch, to enjoy the atmosphere – so this is huge for us. I hope we can put ourselves out there enough to say that this works and let’s keep this going for a couple more years.”

Singapore And Asian Rugby News

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• SEA 7s 2024 Teams & Format Announced.