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MANILA, Philippines – Everything changed for Philippine Volcanoes Jonel Madrona and Lito Ramirez when they discovered rugby.
Both underprivileged Filipinos, Madrona and Ramirez found their passion in rugby football when it was introduced to them 10 years ago. Now, they have turned into key members of the Philippine national rugby team.
Fully homegrown
Philippine rugby general manager Jake Letts admitted that one of the reasons it’s difficult to promote the sport is due to the Philippines’ limited success in recently concluded Southeast Asian Games.
In 2015, the men’s team of the Philippine Volcanoes earned the gold medal in the Rugby 7s tournament of the 28th SEA Games, while the women’s team placed 3rd. However, the nationals failed to bring home any medal in the 2017 SEA Games.
However, he believes the country is capable of producing better athletes.
“We haven’t been as successful as we would like to be compared to the other nations like Japan and Hong Kong. However, we are capable of doing a lot more to be able to compete against the top two nations in Asia,” said Letts.
The Philippine rugby pool has long been a mix of local players, foreign residents, and foreigners with Filipino roots. However, there were problems with this setup due to the lack of veteran homegrown players in international campaigns.
This prompted Letts to take the development to the grassroots level to increase the number of local players like Madrona and Ramirez, who are eligible to suit up for the national team.
“Our vision for Philippine rugby is to see a fully homegrown national team here from the Philippines, competing and winning gold in the SEA Games, so you know looking at our foundation programs, looking at our grassroots programs, that’s where we’re definitely heading,” said Letts.
Letts looks to bring the Philippine Volcanoes back to their prime in 2012 when they went undefeated in Division 1 of the Asian 5 Nations tournament and were promoted to the main division.
Even the other Fil-foreigners who are active in the national team like Letts share this dream to see rugby football grow in the Philippines
“It is important that the reason why they come back is that they choose to want to represent the Philippines, [and] that they want to see rugby grow in the Philippines,” added Letts.
Changing Filipino culture
In line with the development of Philippine rugby football, Letts has a dream of seeing Filipino families gather together on a field every Saturday for “Rugby Day”.
“Our tagline moving forward is ‘Saturday is rugby day’,” said Letts.
By taking one day of the weekend, Letts aims to change the Filipino culture of chilling in malls and keeping themselves indoors. The newly-appointed general manager believes that rugby football can be the catalyst of this change.
“I know a lot of people here [in the Philippines] tend to be in malls and indoors, but we want to try to get them outdoors, so the culture of it is to come out, get involved, and play the game of rugby.”
The Philippine rugby union has already begun this initiative at Southern Plains, Canlubang – home to the Eagles Rugby Football Club (formerly Alabang Eagles Rugby Club).
The union also has been visiting schools all over the country, introducing rugby football to Physical Education programs as it envisions the sport to be included in the 2019 or 2020 Palarong Pambansa.
Rugby 7s will be included again in the 2018 Philippine National Games, which will commence on Saturday, May 19 at Southern Plains.
“It’s making sure that rugby continues to grow, so we have a dream of making sure that our supporters in the school will come and we want to be around Palarong Pambansa in the future,” said Letts.
– Rappler.com
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