The PRFU were delighted to be invited to the 2012 Philippine National Games(PNG) by the Philippine Sports Commission and Philippine Olympic Committee. The games were held at in Sta Cruz, Laguna and Governor  Jorge “ER” Ejercito Estregan was  extremely supportive to host the Rugby 7s event and showcase this Olympic sport to everyone at the newly renovated RECS Sports Stadium.

Eight Men’s teams and three women’s teams registered to compete for the inaugural Philippine National Games  Gold, Silver and Bronze medals.  The Men’s Division had the Eagles, Ibons, Bison/Tarsiers, Globe Immortals, MAAP Warriors, CBRE Vipers and Mavericks, Clark Rugby Club teams in competition, while  the Women  had Team Xena, MAAP Lady Warriors and  Nomads.

It was an early start with the PRFU supplying a bus for the participants to make the three hour journey south. The sun was shining and temperatures soared to the high thirties as the teams took the field to play Rugby 7s in the aim of winning positions for the upcoming SEA Games, which will be held in Myanmar in 2013.

Rugby 7s is an exciting sport and promotes action, speed, agility and teamwork and is a perfect sport for any young Filipino athletes who enjoy the challenge of playing a dynamic contact sport. The PRFU restricted participation to the PNG Rugby 7s tournament to Filipino Heritage players only.  It was exciting to see over 150 Filipino athletes take the field to compete to become the top Rugby 7s teams in the country.

The Men’s competition saw the teams do battle in a round robin format and then break into A and B Divisions for the finals. The Alabang Eagles were ranked the number one team entering the competition and they would have to face some formidable opponents in the top division. The semi finals were the Eagles against the newly formed CBRE Vipers, which the Eagles won to move through to the final.

In the other semi-final the young guns from Clark Rugby Club (CRC) who were all ex Bahay Bata orphanage players proved that size in Rugby 7s is not everything as they ran around their opponents displaying deft rugby skills and teamwork.  Displaying excellent teamwork, the 16 – 18 year old Foundation players defeated their bigger and older opponents, the Globe Immortals, to set up a David and Goliath encounter in the Men’s A Division Gold Medal game.

On this occasion, it was the Eagles who proved too strong for their younger counterparts and they won the inaugural PNG Final by 29 – 5. The Eagles thoroughly deserved this win and have written their names in the history books as the first Men’s team to win a PNG Gold Medal in Rugby 7s.

The Men’s B Division Final was played between the MAAP Warriors and the newly formed  Rugby 101 club the Bison-Tarsiers. It was a tribute to see the oldest Filipino Rugby Club, the MAAP Warriors play in this final, especially when they had travelled overnight all the way from Bataan.  The MAAP Warriors had shown glimpses of brilliance throughout the round games and stalwart coaches Rick Hartley and Tony Shibley worked with the players to tighten up the defense for the final. This tactic certainly worked as MAAP ran out winners by 22 – 5. It was a great victory for the Warriors and is a tribute to the pioneer Filipino Rugby Club that they won their first ever PNG medal.

The Women’s Final was the best game of the day. Both the Nomads and Team Xena sides had several National Team players and this proved to be the ingredient for an exciting and competitive final. Both sides were locked at 7 all at the final siren and it wasn’t until National team legend, Manila Santos, broke through the Nomads’ defense in extra time to score a runaway try from 60m out. The Golden Point gave Team Xena  the Women’s Division Gold Medal.

The PNG allowed the PRFU to showcase the growing sport of Rugby 7s and the Filipino athletes were extremely proud to compete to win National PSC medals. Rugby 7s is now played at the SEA, Asian and Olympic Games, and the PSC are looking to build further Rugby 7s programs to claim medals at these events.

The PRFU would like to thank the Philippine Sports Commission for the inviting Rugby 7s to be a sport at the 2012 Philippine National Games and Governor  Jeorge  “ER”  Ejercito Estregan for hosting the tournament at the world class RECS Sports Stadium in Sta Cruz Laguna.

Both PSC Commissioner, Jolly Gomez (PSC Commissioner) and Governor ER attended the PNG awards ceremony and were delighted at the level of skill, participation and sportsmanship displayed by all the Filipino teams that played in the 2012 Rugby 7s Philippine National Games tournament.

Official PNG results that are registered with the Philippine Sports Commission for 2012:

Photo gallery (all photos on this page by Michael Fernandez)

The JML 15s League was in full swing at the Eagle's Nest in Silangan, with teams in the Bowl, Plate and Women’s Divisions all competing for places in the June 9th Finals. The Cup teams had a bye this weekend and the Alabang Eagles will fly to play the Cebu Dragons on Saturday June 2nd before the Philippine National Women’s team play an International game against Singapore. 

The Women’s game will be the last lead up game before the Philippine National Women’s team plays in the Asian Women’s 15s Championships that will be held here in Manila from June 13 – 17th. Laos, Singapore and Thailand will all travel to the Philippines to play in the Asian Women’s Tournaments with games at Nomads Sports Club on Thursday June 14th and the Finals and Awards Ceremony at the Eagles Nest on Saturday June 16th.

Carabaos Win on the bell to move to the Plate Finals

The Carabaos came up against the Alabang Ibons at the Eagles' Nest and this game would decide the placings for the Plate Division finals on June 9th. The Ibons were definitely focused on beating the Carabaos after losing 33 – 31 after the final whistle when the Hapons converted a last minute try to snatch victory and the win. 

The Ibons started poorly when they dropped the first ball of the game from the kick off. The Caraboas pounced on this opportunity to go straight on the attack in the Ibons territory. The Carabaos kept the ball tight and made several attacking raids at the Ibons line, utilizing  their now recognized pick and drive techniques. The Ibons defense was relentless for the first five minutes of the game and they consistently stopped the large Carabaos forwards from scoring at the edge of the ruck. It wasn’t until the ball went wide to Jason Lock who scored in the corner to open the game and put the Carabaos on the front foot early in the game. The Ibons failed to regroup from the restart and found themselves under attack again on their own line. This time it was the Carabaos second rower Bradley Benton who charged over to score their second try in the first 10 minutes and take a 10 – 0 lead.

It wasn’t until the 15th minute of the game that the Ibons secured the ball and kicked for field position and were able to apply some pressure on the Carabaos defense. The Ibons strung together several attacking raids with Rupert Zappia finally scoring from a skillful backline move and converted the try to bring the Ibons back into the game at 10 – 7. The Ibons immediately fell into their own trap as they bundled their second kick off and this let the Carabaos pressure them into making mistakes that eventually led to a penalty that was converted by Daniel Melrose to take the lead to 13  - 7. The Carabaos seemed to drop their intensity and as soon as they did, David Carman sprang into life and made three decisive breaks that allowed the Ibons to score just before halftime through a sneaky dummy half try to Jaypee Paypon who darted from the base of a ruck and scored under the posts. The try was converted and the Ibons went into the halftime break with a narrow 14 – 13 lead.

The second half would prove to be just as even as the first and Rupert Zappia took advantage of some weak Carabaos defense when he scored his second try and the Ibons had the ascendency. All they had to do was play field possession and minimize their mistake rate to take out a victory. It was the Ibons lack of discipline at the ruck area that would lead to the next two penalties being converted by Dan Melrose to bring the game level at 19 – 19. The Ibons were their own worst enemy as they repeatedly gave away penalties for off side at the ruck which eventually led to two Ibons players being sin binned in the last 10 minutes of the game. The Ibons were on their own line and the Caraboas won another penalty and decided to take the scrum and punish the weakened Ibons forwards. The Caraboas pushed the Ibons into their own corner and it was Chris Anderson who dove over at no. 8 to score on the whistle and win the game for the Carabaos by 24 – 19. De ja vu for the Ibons, losing their second straight game at home on the whistle and they can only blame themselves for repeatedly infringing and allowing the Carabaos back into the game.

Maverick Vipers make in two from two wins heading into the Plate Final

The Bowl game saw a range of players take the field starting with the traditional rugby 101 teams which were both bolstered with National Underage Team players from ISM and BSM. The combination of enthusiasm from the 101 players and raw talent from the National underage players proved to be an effective recipe for a competitive game of 15s rugby. The game began at a blistering pace and it was Vipers number 8  Jason Lock who scored the opening try of the game when he beat three defenders to score out wide.

The game was certainly a struggle with both teams intent on winning the forward battle. The National Underage players marked up on each other on both sides with Tim Churchill, Jake Batuhan and Dan Melrose playing for the Bison/Tarsiers and Dan O'Reilly and AJ Brown playing for the Maverick Vipers. AJ Brown set up the challenge when he scored for the Vipers and was supported by last week’s MVP for the Mavericks Vipers, Charles Barthelemy who again showed that he is a player to watch in the future as he scored the Vipers third try to take a 17 – 0 lead into the halftime break.

The Bison Tarsiers were a different team in the second half and actually outscored the Vipers by 5 – 3, with Marc Patiag scoring the Bison’s only try and Dan Melrose kicking the only penalty goal for the game to end Maverick Vipers 20 defeating Bison Tarsiers 5. This means that the Maverick Vipers will again face the Bison-Tarsiers in the Plate Division final on June 9th.

Women’s Teams prepare for upcoming International Series

The Manila based women’s National Team players assembled at the Eagles Nest field to have an early training session and all the players will travel to Cebu this Thursday to prepare for an International 15s game against Singapore. This will be final hit out before the Philippine National Women’s Team host the Asian Women’s 15s tournament here in Manila on June 14 (Nomads) and June 16 (Eagles).

With half the National squad based in Cebu, 17 women turned out to play at Eagles on Saturday and the women played four quarters of 7s rugby. It was National Team player Rose Dela Cruz who stole the show in the first half by scoring two runaway tries. She was well supported by Jen Saldo from UMAK who showed she is definitely a prospect for the future with her deceptive speed as she ran the length of the field to score team Blues third try andtake a convincing halftime lead over the Red team by 17 – 0.

Acee San Juan played strongly at scrumhalf for the Blue team and constantly delivered quality ball to her speedy outside backs and scored a great solo try when she dummied from the base of a ruck and ran through to score under the posts. It was again the speedy youngster Jen Saldo who then scored the last two tries to see the Blue team win by 37 – 5.

The Women’s MVP for Saturday was Acee San Juan who was well supported by Cassie Umali and Manila Santos who will all feature in the upcoming International Series.

Plate MVP – Dan Melrose and Chris Httel

Bowl MVP – Dan O Reily

Women’s MVP – Acee San juan

Upcoming PRFU Events:

June 2, Cebu International School
Women’s International Series:  Philippines v Singapore 
JML Cup Division: Eagles v Cebu Dragons

ARFU Women's 15s: Teams: Philippines, Laos, Singapore, Thailand
June 14, Nomad Sports Club, Merville Paranaque (eliminations)
June 16, Eagles Nest, Silangan (finals & awards)

JML 15s League Finals and Awards presentation
June 9, Eagles Nest – Cup, Plate, Bowl and Women’s Finals

Philippine National Games 
June 23, RECS Stadium, Sta Cruz Laguna

Nomads Storm to the top of the JML 15s league

The Manila Nomads team proved once again that they are the top team in the Philippines at the 15s format with an emphatic 45 – 10 win over their traditional rivals the Eagles. Playing at the Eagles new club in Silangan Laguna, the Nomads ran in seven tries on the back of a dominant forwards display that left the Eagles bemused at beaten. Three Nomads players scored twice, including veteran forward Eric Savina, who was a member of the first Philippine Men’s team back in 2006. Eric showed he still had the legs and vision to run on good angles and constantly took the game to the Eagles defense. He was equally supported by the combined “PLAYERS OF THE GAME” newcomer wingers Bradley Newton and Ram Al Azmeh sharing the coach’s plaudits being named the Hardy’s Men of the Match.

The Nomads never looked in trouble and the Eagles did not do themselves any favors when their elusive strong running center Tim Bheweni was penalized for a high tackle. This led the way for the Nomads to gain some valuable territory into the Eagles half and the Nomads forwards did the rest. The Nomads pack totally dominated the forward battle and time and time again they were able to maul the ball forward taking Eagles defenders with them as they marched forward. This eventually took its toll on the weary Eagles and the Nomads took a 24 – 5 halftime lead.  This was done with only 14 men on the field with another ex-National player, John Munro spending 10 minutes in the sin bin for a high tackle on the only first half try to the Eagles by National u18s player Jake Batuhan.  The second half saw the Nomads continue to charge at the Eagles defense and with a glut of possession the tiring Eagles could only just hold on to allow Tim Bweheni to score the Eagles only second half try and eventually lose the game by 45 – 10. This now gives the Nomads two wins in as many games. They will face the winner of the Eagles vs Cebu Dragons game (to be played in Cebu on June 2nd)in the JML 15s League finals on Sat June 9th.

Hapons win over the Ibons with an Overtime Conversion

The Manila Hapon’s v Alabang Ibons game was the most exciting game of round three of the JML 15s League. The Ibons looked to have the game wrapped up with a 31 – 19 lead with twenty minutes left in the game. It was the Hapon’s experience showed in the last quarter of the game and they retained possession to score two converted tries in the last 12 minutes of the game. What made the feat even more remarkable was when they scored out wide on the siren to draw the game at 31 – 31. The time was over and the Hapon’s kicker Colin Strikey had a difficult shot to win the game, he struck the ball beautifully and the Ibons could not believe they had lost a game that they led since the first try was scored in the 5th minute. 

The Hapons now have one win and one loss. The Plate division final make up will be decided by the game this Saturday between the Ibons and the Carabaos.

Vipers Strike a Blow as they defeat the Globe Immortals

The Vipers who have been training with the Makati Mavericks showed everyone they will be a competitive force in 2012 with a first up win against the Globe Immortals. The Vipers came with numbers to their first game in the JML 15s league and proved to all the Bowl teams that they will push to play in the Finals on June 9th. They now meet the combined Bison/Tarsiers team next Saturday May 26th and a win in this game could see the Immortals miss their first finals. 

The Vipers looked well-organized and Man of the Match, Charles Barthelemy scored the Vipers’ opening try in the 4th minute to put the Immortals on the back foot. The Globe team struck back in the 10th minute with an equalizer by Al Tesoro and the game was 5 – 5 at the halftime break. The second half was just as tight as the score remained 12 – 12 with 10 minutes left in the game. The injection of u16 team National team player AJ Brown made the difference late in the game as he broke through some Globe tacklers to score the winning try and kick the conversion to win the game 19 – 12. 

The next round of the JML 15s league will take place at the Eagles field next Saturday May 26th:

2pm – Team Xena v Nomads (Women’s)
3pm – Vipers v Bisons/Tarsiers (Bowl)
4pm – Ibons v Carabaos (Plate) 

The GLOBE PRFU 7s finals were held at the Nomads sports club last Saturday and nine men’s teams arrived to battle for the Cup and Plate Trophies. In the Cup Division we saw the Alabang Eagles and Ibons, Manila Hapons, MAAP Warriors and Manila Nomads while the Plate division saw the introduction of the new “All Filipino league” with the Globe Immortals, Raging Bison, Vipers and Tarsiers all entering teams in the their first PRFU league finals campaign.

CUP DIVISION

The day began with a round-robin play off in each division.  All games were going according to plan until the Alabang Ibons met the Nomads in the Cup Semi-Final. The Ibons had obviously been practicing the 7s game and came out firing against their larger Nomads opponents. The game was fiercely competitive with Jon Morales and Saki Tuisolia forcing the Ibons to make several strong tackles.  It was 7 – 7 with two minutes remaining on the clock, before Chris Everingham broke through the Nomads defense and linked up with David Carman to score the try of the day that lead the Ibons to a final against their club A team, the Eagles.

The cup final was then played between the Alabang Eagles and the Alabang Ibons and it was the club’s premier team who proved too strong for the Ibons.  With National Team players like Tim Bweheni, Andrew Wolff and Eric Tai the Eagles ran out easy winners by 28-7. Tim Bweheni was named the Cup Division “Most Valuable Player” as he again displayed that he possesses some natural talent in the game of Rugby 7s.

PLATE DIVISION

The Plate Division was a battle royal with the four new Filipino clubs playing and training at PhilSports Stadium for the last 2 months to prepare for the Plate Finals. The Tarsiers played the Vipers for third and forth positions and after two games the Tarsiers won the third place on for- and-against tally of 22 points for 10 points against. This left the Globe Immortals to play the Plate Final against their fierce opponents, the Bison in a match which proved to be closest game of all the finals. 

The Globe Immortals were led by Wilson Caisip who has been one of the strongmen of the newly formed club and he rallied the Globe team to take the game to the Bisons. The Bison certainly did not lie down and stunned the more fancied Globe team with some bone crushing tackles as the score remained 0 – 0 for the first five minutes. 

It was National Development team representative player, Jay Coronel who finally broke the dead lock and busted through the Bison’s defense to score a great individual try, the only one scored in the first half.

The second half proved just as tight as the first, until the last minute of the game when the Bison decided to attack from their own 10 meter line.  A gap opened, and the Bison scored a 90 meter try to get back in the game. They only needed to convert the kick to draw the match and take it into overtime, unfortunately they missed the conversion and the final siren rang with the Globe Immortals scrapping home to win the inaugural Globe PRFU 7s Plate final by 7 – 5. Jay Coronel was named the Plate Division “Most Valuable Player”

The PRFU intend on running three elite leagues in 2012 that include:

PRFU 10s League (Jan, Feb, March)
PRFU 15s League (April, May, June)
PRFU 7s League Rd 1 (August, Sept)
PRFU 7s League Rd 2 (Oct, Nov)

Congratulations to all the teams that played in the PRFU leagues in 2011 and we all look forward to a competitive season in 2012.

The Nomads Rugby club once again proved that they are the local champions at 15s Rugby in the with a hard fought win over their cross town rivals the Alabang Eagles by 36 – 19. The game started with a torrential downpour that did not let up throughout the afternoon and the Nomads Rugby pitch turned into a mud bath as both teams scrambled to win the slippery ball.

During the first period of the game, Nomads played in the Eagles territory which resulted in David Feeney and Pierre Fallourd scoring the first two tries for Nomads to take a 12 – 0 lead. The Alabang Eagles finally realized that they could not win the game from their own quarter and punched the ball downfield to capitalize on a Nomads mistake and Rimex Davai beat two defenders in the slippery conditions to score the opening try for the Eagles. The Eagles attacked again immediately from the kick off and Tim Bweheni scored to give the Eagles the lead 12 – 10. Nomads then kicked the ball deep and the Eagles once again tried to run from their own quarter only to knock the ball on and give Nomads possession again, which resulted in a Kevin Ogley try out wide that left the halftime score at 17 – 12 to Nomads.

As the rain came down it was obvious that whichever team played the territorial advantage, would benefit in the second half. Nomads dominated the second half and scored three unanswered tries with Nomads Captain Jon Morales crossing first, to be followed by Kevin Ogley and finally Nick Treweeke. Danny Williams had a successful day with the boot in the wet conditions and converted three tries to take out the PRFU 15s league trophy.

The game was played in a competitive and fair spirit and the Alabang Eagles fought hard and without their injured star players David Carman, Chris Hettel, Andrew Wolff and Eric Tai it was always going to be difficult to win against a full strength Nomads outfit.

The PRFU 15s Division 1 “Most Valuable Player” was awarded to Nomads newcomer Kevin Ogley.

ALABANG IBONS TAKE OUT THE PRFU 15s DIVISION 2 TITLE

Meanwhile, it was hard to decipher the teams in the Division 2 PRFU 15s Final with the field becoming a sea of mud and rain. The Alabang Ibons had remained undefeated coming into the Div 2 final and once again proved too strong for the Globe Immortals, winning the final by 34 – 5. This was the Globe immortals first years at playing 15s style Rugby and they will make improvements for next year’s competition. The Ibons were led by Philippine National u20s brothers Jovic and Jeepy Paypon who both played and scored tries in the backs, while PRFU local legend Gabby Roque and up and coming u18s National player Ross “Barnaby” McLeod led the forwards up the middle of the field.

The PRFU Division 2 “Most Valuable Player” was awarded to Ross McLeod.
The PRFU will now host the HK u21s team to play a two game series against the Philippine National Development team here on Aug 17th and 20th. The National Development team is selected from locally based Filipino players who have learnt and played their Rugby here in the Philippines.