The Philippine Rugby Football Union have selected the Philippine Volcanoes Men’s Sevens team that will debut at the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens Rugby Tournament this coming March. The 12 squad members are: Terry Carroll Mark Chatting Justin Coveney Chris Hitch Jake Letts Michael Letts Joseph Matthews Luke Matthews Patrice Olivier Matt Saunders Oliver Saunders Jake Ward In compliance with the International Rugby Board regulations, the 100% Filipino-heritage squad consists of players who were either born in the Philippines, or have at least one parent or grandparent that was born in the Philippines. All players were selected by the PRFU National Teams Committee and are the top 12 players who are currently available and playing Rugby 7s at elite levels. Eight of the players namely, Mark Chatting, Justin Coveney, Chris Hitch, Jake Letts, brothers Joseph & Luke Matthews and Matt & Oliver Saunders were part of the team that won a Silver Medal at last year’s Borneo Sevens Tournament. “It was a difficult task to choose the final twelve, in view of all the quality players that put their hand up for the competition.” Said National Coaches Matt Cullen & Expo Mejia. “We also had to consider their fitness levels, existing injuries and other factors that may impact their performance. Whether they were selected or not, we are proud of all our players, past and present, because they all had a role in getting us to where we are today. They will be in our hearts and minds when we step onto the pitch in Hong Kong.” The Philippine Volcanoes will train together in Manila on third week of March and depart for Hong Kong on March 20. The Philippines is in Pool E with Canada, Spain and Zimbabwe. Organized by the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union and co-title sponsored by Cathay Pacific Airways and HSBC, the Hong Kong Sevens 2012 will take place March 23 - 25. Around 120,000 spectators from all over the world are expected to watch the tournament, which will be held at the iconic 40,000-seater Hong Kong stadium. For more information on the Hong Kong Sevens, visit: www.hksevens.com Day 1 of the Thailand Sevens at the Bunyajinda Stadium, Royal Thai Police Sports Club, Bangkok started for the Philippines with a hard fought win over the UAE 24 - 17 with the UAE coming home in a strong fashion in the second half. Andrew Wolff crossed the line for the for the first 5-pointer in the opening minute, while new boy Nigel Maher converted scoring his first goal in his debut game for the Volcanoes. Ever-reliable David Carman ran onto an outwide pass and sprinted in for the Volcanoes' second try. One minute later, Chris busted the defence line and scored.
In the second half, the boys tired and UAE attempted a comeback with 3 quick tries. David Carman again crossed for his second match try under the posts, giving Nigel Maher an easy conversion. The final score saw a victory to the Pinoy boys 24 -17 and Coach Matt's Man of the Match award went to Nigel Maher for a great performance in his first cap for the Philippines. The Team started to gel in the second match, playing a more structured game against Laos. The Volcanoes stretched Laos' defence from the left and right hand side of the field. Team Captain, Chris Everingham opened up score with a bustling run to the line taking out the last line of defence. Nigel Maher found has way in the middle of the field and was hard to detain with the ball in his hand. Aaron Briddon assisted the continuousl attack phases which saw Nigel cross for 2 quick tries. Laos came back with a backline move that saw Vice Captain, Noel Flowers pull off a huge hit on his opponent. Not to be outdone, Chris Hettel made the hit of the day, if not the hit of the tournament, that made the grandstand spectators applaud. Andrew Wolf crossed late in the game taking the final score to 24 -5. Chris Hettel was names Man of the Match. The final game of the day saw the Philippines explode against the more favoured Japan team and it was 0 - 0 until Japan scored a length of the field try against the run of play to open the game up and ran in two easy tries before halftime. Philippines debutants Jay Coronel and Paulo Jordan played in the second half and the Philippines eventually lost to Japan by 43 - 7, with Man of the Match Andrew Wolff scored the Philippines only try. The Philippines ended the day with 2 wins and 1 loss, finishing second in their pool and placing them in a Quarter Final game against home favourites Thailand tomorrow afternoon. The Philippine Rugby Football Union are proud to announce that the Philippine National Men’s 7s Rugby team has received its invitation from the International Rugby Board to compete in the world’s largest rugby sevens tournament, the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens. Scheduled on March 23-25, 2012 at the Hong Kong Stadium (capacity 40,000) the Hong Kong 7s is a by-invitation-only tournament attended by the top sevens teams in the world like New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and England. It is considered the premier leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series played in Australia, Dubai, South Africa, New Zealand, USA, Japan, Scotland and England. Sevens Rugby, which plays seven men per team on the field, is a faster, more exciting version of Rugby Union which plays 15 men per side. It was the Philippine Volcanoes’ Silver-medal winning performance at the Borneo 7s held in September 2011, which merited the invitation to this prestigious tournament. Ranked 7th in a field of 12 teams, the Volcanoes, led by Men’s 7s Captain, Jake Letts, guided by National, Coach Matt Cullen and Assistant, Noel Flowers, surprised everyone by beating their highly-regarded rivals one by one, finishing second only to Asia’s number one-ranked Japan. “This invitation to the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens marks a milestone in the history of the Union” says PRFU President, Alvin San Diego. “It’s a testament to the hard work of our players, coaches and supporters and more importantly, proof that Filipinos can excel in the sport of Rugby.” For more information on Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, visit: http://www.hksevens.com 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. Tim Bweheni 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 Raging Bison 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. Jay Coronel 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 Philippine Volcanoes Men’s Rugby 7s team has beaten all the odds by winning the Silver Medal at the 2011 Asian Men’s Rugby 7s Championships. The Philippines entered the tournament ranked 7th and beat Kazakhstan and United Arab Emirates in the Pool matches, heading into the Quarter Finals. Day 2 started for the Volcanoes with an emphatic win over the home favorites, Malaysia in a heated contest between the South East Asia rivals. The final score saw the Philippines win by 28 – 14. The game was played with intensity from both sides and it was the “Flying Jeepney" Justin Coveney who opened the scoring for the Volcanoes. Matt Saunders then scored the Philippines next try to even the game at 14 – 14 at the halftime break. The same players reversed the try scoring efforts in the second half and the Philippines knocked out Malaysia in front of their home crowd to move to a Semi Final against the powerhouse sporting nation, China. The Philippines had never beaten China on the four occasions that the teams met in the Rugby 7s Asian Championships in 2010 and 2011. The Philippines knew they had to combat the Chinese speed and injected Luke Matthews into the starting lineup to add some pace to the outside backs. This tactic proved its worth immediately with Luke Matthews scoring the first try for the Philippines. The Chinese team replied with two first half tries and went to the halftime break with a 14 – 7 lead. The game hung in the balance until the Harry Morris broke through some weak Chinese defense to score the equalizer just before fulltime. The game finished in a 14 all draw and the quarter final entered extra time with a golden point rule to win. The Philippines looked confident heading into the overtime period and Joe Matthews was able to break away and score a try under the posts to secure a remarkable win and put the Volcanoes in their first ever Cup Final at the Asian Championships. The Asian Men’s Championships is played by the top 12 Rugby Nations in Asia and can be compared to playing in the Asian Games. It was a remarkable feat by the Philippines to make the Cup Final and they had defeated Kazakhstan, UAE, Malaysia and China on their victorious road to success. The Final saw the Philippines play the number ranked Rugby Nation in Asia Japan and it was always going to be a huge feat to knock of a team whose members all play professional Rugby. The Philippines came out and fought hard against a bigger, fitter and stronger Japanese squad. The Philippines went down in the Cup Final and can be extremely proud of their efforts for ranking No. 2 in the Asian Men’s 7s Championships. Philippines Coach Matt Cullen was delighted with the Volcanoes efforts over the two day tournament and explained that “This was only the beginning of Filipino Rugby teams winning at these types of Championships. The Volcanoes have been on the cusp of greatness for the past two years and this tournament has proven that the Philippines can compete with the best teams in Asia. If this was the Asian games we would have won a silver medal for the Philippines. We will now win an invite to compete in the world renowned Hong Kong 7s next March and compete at the Olympic level. Just another challenge that the Volcanoes are ready to take in their stride as they keep breaking records on their path to glory.” For the full results, visit: http://www.asian5nations.com/borneo-sevens |
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