 The Bahay Bata Foundation U14 Rugby Team defeated Clifton College by 24 points to 0 in wet and windy conditions at the Clifton College Sports Complex on Tuesday, 10 May. The game is the first in a two-match series with the second game scheduled on Thursday, 16 May at 4.30pm. The Clifton College squad is made up of 32 players who will be traveling to Australia this July to play four top-level private schools in both Sydney and Brisbane. Half the squad played in yesterday's game and the other half will compete to try and even the series on Thursday. In wet, cold conditions it was the Bahay Bata Captain and flyhalf Ryan Padilla who dazzled the Clifton defence with one of Coach Cullen's favourite plays, the "Chooky 2", which is a dummy switch move on the inside center. The entire Clifton College backline fell for the play and Ryan ran in under the posts to score the opening try. Because of the rainy conditions, the ball was slippery and both teams dropped plenty of ball. In the end it was the Bahay Bata team that had the forward momentum and managed to find some holes on the edge of the ruck that were exposed by the halfback Jolen Madrona, who scooped on two loose balls at the base of the ruck to score two runaway tries.  The game finished with John Mark Manaloto supporting another break by Jolen Madrona and they linked up to score the forth try of the game and win the first game by 24 - 0.
The parents, boys and coaches enjoyed an after match function at the Clifton College Sports Complex and everyone was very impressed with the Bahay Bata performance in the first game. The Man of the Match was awarded to Ryan Padilla and the Clifton College coach asked if he was available to represent Clifton on the Australian tour. Obviously the Clifton College team will regroup and the next squad will be more prepared for the Bahay Bata attacking plays and forward momentum.  The Philippine U20s Rugby Union team made a clean sweep of the Asian u20s Division 2 Championships in Vientiane Laos this week. The Philippines played four game of Rugby Union in five days at the 2009 South East Asian Games stadium and were able to defeat India 38–7, Kazakhstan 22–10, Laos 52–0 and Iran 12–8. The last game against Iran was the Championship final and this game proved to be the hardest victory for a tiring Filipino team. Iran had a physical advantage and the heavens opened on the morning of the final which played into the hands of the Iranian team whose game plan revolved around barging forward play backed up by down field kicking. Throughout the tournament the Philippines had successfully used their backline to cut through their opponent's backlines but the weather conditions were not favorable for running rugby and the Philippines struggled to control the ball in the slippery wet conditions. After succeeding eight penalties the Iranian team finally missed a tackle in defense on their line and the Philippine Backline were able to capitalize on this mistake to score out wide through Ricky Kucia and the Philippines took a five point lead. The Iranian team had definitely improved since last year's final and grew in confidence as the Philippines gave up successive penalties and the Iranian goal kicker converted a penalty to take the halftime score to 5–3.  The Philippine National Ladies Rugby Union Team emphatically won the Asian Rugby Ladies championships in Guangzhou, China by defeating India, Korea, Laos and Malaysia to claim the ladies B Division trophy. The tournament was held at the stadium which will host the Asian Games this November and it was the first time that the Philippines has competed in an Asian Championships in ladies Rugby 7s. The team consisted of Filipino players from Manila, Cebu, Bataan, Australia, USA and Canada and arrived in Guangzhou not knowing how they would fare in their first International Rugby Tournament. To everyone’s amazement the Philippines quickly stamped their authority on the tournament and the team started to turn heads when they defeated India by 17 - 0. The Indian team are all in a professional training camp to prepare for the Commonwealth and Asian Games later this year and were the favorites to win the B Division tournament.  The Philippine Volcanoes took the Division 2 ARFU title at their first attempt in emphatic fashion in Delhi today with a 34-12 victory over the hosts, India.
Although the final victory was a three try to two triumph, the gallant Indian team were restricted to scoring at the beginning of the game and at the end of the game, but for the intervening periods the Philippines dominated both territory and possession. The beginning of the game was marked by gusts of sand and dust which knocked down some of the hoardings surrounding the brand new rugby pitch at Delhi University. An enthusiastic local crowd cheered on the local team and the intial exchanges were very physical. After an early penalty kicked by Oliver Saunders, the Indian pack took the ball from a lineout in their own 22 and trundled the Philippines pack backwards for an emphatic forwards' try. However, the remainder of the first half involved the Volcanoes applying tremendous pressure on the Indians in all parts of the field and this led to a string of penalties, duly converted by the Philippine No. 10 and just before half time the lead had been extended to 15-7, by virtue of five penalties. In a crucial period of the match Matt Saunders, who had a strong tournament, went in for a five-pointer out wide, improved his position and the resulting conversion allowed the Philippine team to take a 22-7 lead into the half-time break. The first half had been punctuated with low crunching tackles by the fourth-ranked team on their larger opponents, but the game was still up for grabs. |
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