Few school teams can boast the same degree of dominance as the current A Division rugby team of Anglo-Chinese School (Independent).

Since they won the Under-11 schools title in 2009, they have swept every age-group schools national title except the 2014 B Division.

Yesterday, they claimed another crown, finishing their schools national rugby career with a flourish by beating old rivals Raffles Institution (RI) 36-3 at the Ministry of Education Physical Education and Sports Education Branch on Evans Road.

For this graduating Year 6 batch, it was the perfect end to their rugby journey.

A jubilant ACS(I) captain Ethan Ho, 18, said: "These guys have stuck through thick and thin ever since we were in Primary 3, playing together for 10 years. It's really some moment to end it on a high note.

"After being an ACSian for 12 years, it doesn't get better than this."

Head coach Adrian Chong was equally effusive with his praise of the players, saying: "They are quite special. They already have a winning mentality about them and they don't know what giving up is.

"I think those are traits that make champions. That is why they are so successful as a team."

Such was their dominance that Chong could afford to give the Year 5 players a run-out in the second half, having already run up a 26-0 lead by half-time through tries from Lim Shern, Daniel Ho and Jason Goh.

An early second-half penalty by fly-back Christopher Mak gave the Rafflesians and their raucous support some hope, but a quick-fire try by ACS(I) full-back Lim Shern, his third of the match, effectively killed off the tie. Prop Bryan Foo put the icing on the cake with a try three minutes from time.

It was ACS(I)'s third consecutive A Division crown.

With this batch of RI boys playing in their first rugby final since Secondary 1, captain Harish Rai, 17, said: "I'm very proud of the boys. We were up against a much more experienced ACS(I) team... but everybody put up a good fight, and we did our best."