21-07-2025
New Selangor rugby coach prioritises 'process over prize'
KUALA LUMPUR: New Selangor Rugby Union (SRU) head coach Suhaimi Amran expects Kelantan and Johor to be among their main rivals at the National Sevens Championships in Kuala Terengganu this weekend (July 25-27).
Suhaimi said Selangor experienced Kelantan's quality first-hand during a recent friendly.
"We competed in a four-way friendly series with Kelantan, Royal Malaysian Police and Malaysian Universities recently," said Suhaimi.
"And I believe Kelantan will be our strongest rivals for the National Sevens, next best is probably Johor.
"Kelantan have many national team starters in their side. Their squad is packed with experienced players who are in peak form.
"The National Sevens will be a battle of hard work and experience."
Suhaimi, who is former Singapore national head coach, joined Selangor in late April and immediately got to work preparing the squad for the national meet.
"Preparations have gone well and we managed to win the Perlis Sevens last month," said the Singaporean.
"But I am not thinking about whether we can win the National Sevens. From day one, I have asked our players to focus on our day to day performances and tick the boxes so the outcome will take care of itself.
"Of course we want to win gold - we train to win - however, we do not want to be derailed from our main objective of being better daily."
Suhaimi added that he was pleasantly surprised by the quality of players in the current Selangor squad.
"If I was the national team coach I would have a headache selecting players as we have so much talent from just one state (Selangor)," he added.
"The question is whether we can develop and fully utilise the talent we have. My goal is to create a high-performance culture at Selangor and help these players flourish."
