CS Larrikins, an invitational team including amongst their number former Wallaby hooker Jeremy Paul, former Italy No 8 Matt Phillips and several of the Arabian Gulf 7’s squad won the cup competition at the twentieth anniversary Manila Ten’s on Sunday evening.

The fifteen hundred or so in attendance at Nomads Sports Club were treated to an enthralling final in which the never-say-die attitude of the Singapore Barbarians kept them in the contest throughout.

Larrikins had had the far easier passage to the final with comfortable wins over New South Wales Crows in the quarter-final and then a romp against the young guns from Sydney, the Rats, in the semis.

Singapore in reaching their fifth consecutive cup final came through two tightly contested games with teams that would have not been out of place in the final themselves. Their quarter-final with the street wise New Zealand side, the Ligers could have gone either way, with the final score at 21-12 and if they thought that was hard work then the semi-final with the defending champions, the Black Watch was really demanding. The British Army lads, bound for Helmand Province, Afghanistan next week gave their all in a bid for back to back titles but were unable to halt the progression of the Baba’s who registered a 19-12 victory.

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