Saturday, 10 July 2010 23:51
Royal Johor Polo Club 1 held on to beat Royal Pahang Polo Club 6 - 5 in an enthralling Royal Pahang Classic Final on Saturday 10th July at the Royal Pahang Polo Club in Pekan, Pahang. Led by HRH Tengku Mahkota Johor (+2), RJPC 1 shot out to a 4 - 1 lead at half-time with three goals from man-of-the-match Raul Laplacette (6) and one from Santiago Cernadas (6).
Royal Pahang roared back in the second hald and tied the game at 4 - 4 and 5 - 5 in the final chukka as Rafa Silva (6) converted two 60 yarders and and tap-in penalty. But with seconds to go, Rafa was the culprit, coming across a 2 on 1 sitiuation and giving away a 30 yarder that Raul Laplacette gleefully converted to give RJPC 1 the win.
Play was slowed by overnight rain and a a field that cut-up extensively throiugh the game. The quality of polo was still excellent as Gaston Moore (7) and Laplacette put on an excellent match for the large crowd. Royal Pahang was led by HRH Tengku Mahkota Pahang for two chukkas before he made way for Tengku Rohanim, who scored the tying goal in the 4th chukka.
Tengku Mahkota Johor had a very good match, showing good ball control on the difficult field. He laid on a superb backhander for Santiago Cernada to score in the 2nd chukka and made some exciting runs in the game.
Just when it looked like the game would go into sudden deatn overtime, Rafa Silva's mistake ended what would have been a great finish.
La Sarita edged Thai Polo by 5 - 4 1/2 to take 3rd place.
Royal Johor is surely proud of their excellent record, winning two of the three of the MPA International League Tournaments in Malaysia, and finishing second in the other.
Royal Pahang themselves were very proud in winning the RMPA International League with a great performance over all five tournaments in Thailand and Malaysia. They finished on 32.5 points, ahead of Thai Polo on 30.5 points.
RJPC 2, led by HRH Tengku Abdul Rahman won the Gabriel Donoso Memorial Cup in the play-off for 5th to 9th places.
For full results of all matches, please see the RMPA's website here.
RMPA INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE 2010
| Mercedes Benz - | |||||||
| B Grimm | Thai Polo | Malaysian | Royal | Royal Pahang | |||
| S/No | Teams | Thai Polo Open | Masters | Open | Selangor | Classic | Total |
| 1 | Royal Pahang | 6 | 9 | 3.5 | 6 | 8 | 32.5 |
| 2 | Thai Polo | 7 | 5 | 5.5 | 7 | 6 | 30.5 |
| 3 | Jogo - Elevation - Ranhill | 9 | 6 | 5.5 | 2 | 4 | 26.5 |
| 4 | RJPC 1 | - | - | 7 | 9 | 10 | 26 |
| 5 | La Sarita | - | - | 9 | 5 | 7 | 21 |
| 6 | 1 Malaysia | 5 | 7 | 3.5 | 1 | 1 | 17.5 |
| 7 | Bunga Raya / TPC | 4 | 4 | - | - | 3 | 11 |
| 8 | RJPC 2 | - | - | 1 | 4 | 5 | 10 |
| 9 | Head Hunters | - | - | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 |
