Cool heads win the day
Manila Nomads gave an almost faultless display of rugby throughout Saturday’s Cebu Tens Tournament to pick up their first silverware of the year. Their early season form has been patchy, with Alabang Eagles overshadowing them in the PRFU Tens Series and only a mediocre showing in the Manila Tens, but under the captaincy of Max Stewart they put all that behind them.
Fielding a team with a blend of youth and experience they went through their three pool games, defeating Cebu Dragons, Tyloon Pigs and the Barbarians without conceding a single point. Freddy Hoadley’s recent commitment to regaining fitness seems to have taken effect in short time and he got through a lot of work ably supported by Barberis, Stewart, Munro and the effervescent Eric Savina. Out wide both Bruno Vergnes and Bobby Pitts were in fine form and used their pace to full advantage.
The pick of the other teams in Pool A were Tyloon Pigs, a combination of players from the Kowloon and Typhoons Rugby Clubs in Hong Kong. They did not have the cohesiveness of the Nomads, however they were too strong for both of the local teams and placed second in the group.
Pool B was topped by Alabang Eagles whose stand out player of the day was Evans Maina. His recent work in rugby development seems to have inspired dramatic advances in his skill level, commitment and leadership. He is clearly suited to a role as a loose forward and will be pushing for a national call-up in June. Hong Kong University finished second in the group to advance to a cup semi-final match-up with Nomads.
Although the games were short the searing temperatures and hard ground were taking their toll and all teams had to dig deep for the semi-finals. Cebu Dragons, led by Noel Flowers defeated the Nomads Carabaos 17-5, before the Low Flying Dragons dispatched the Barbarians 36-5. This would set up the Dragons Claw Final (for 5/6th placing) between the Cebu City’s two main teams. In the Cup semi-finals the Eagles put Tyloon to the sword with a 26-5 win before Nomads comfortably overcame Hong Kong University 24-0. Unfortunately a nasty gash to the face of Romain Barberis would require a visit to the local hospital and his absence from the final.
In the Dragons Tail final (7/8th placing) Nomads Carabaos overwhelmed the Barbarians winning 38-0. The Claw final, an all Cebu affair garnered much interest from the sidelines. It was the Low Flying Dragons who triumphed on the day, with captain Damien Allison finding just enough fuel in the tank to elude the chasing Noel Flowers for a great individual score and to ultimately lead his men to a 24-10 victory.
The penultimate game saw the two visiting Hong Kong sides meet. Both being touring sides the excesses of the previous night may have been catching up, but it was the younger university lads who managed to find that little bit extra and edged the game 17-7.
Last up was the Cup Final. Nomads and the Eagles know each other well, extremely well and in recent months the bragging rights have been with the South Manila team. Early on in the first half a speculative and seemingly fairly innocuous punt deep into Nomads territory by Juan Engelbrecht was allowed to bounce and the hard running full-back collected his kick and sprinted through to touch-down under the posts. The simple conversion missed, the Eagles led 5-0. Nomads then equalised with an unconverted try by Danny Williams and at the break it was all square.
The second half was all Nomads. The Eagles first lost shape and then their heads as the game wore on. A penalty was awarded to Nomads for not releasing two metres out and then a refusal to allow Nomads access to the ball to take a quick tap resulted in a penalty try under the posts. Eagles were then playing catch-up rugby and the older and more experienced Nomads were able to run the clock down by retaining possession and maintaining good team discipline. The icing on the cake was a try at the death by captain, Max Stewart who managed to reach out through a defensive wall of players to take Nomads to a 17-5 win.
Eagle’s player-coach Matt Cullen was magnanimous in defeat saying, “Our young lads just weren’t up to it in the final. We were out-thought and out-played.” For Nomads, who finished the weekend with three trophies including the boat-race competition, the weekend couldn’t have gone better and they will be looking forward to the start of the fifteens series later this month. They proved on Saturday that it’s not always the younger, fitter side that prevails. Nomads had a game plan; they stuck to it and played to their strengths. That coupled with staying on the right side of referee can make a huge difference to the outcome of any game.
This tournament was sponsored by amongst others Overgaard Ltd who have made a commitment to supporting amateur rugby, as well as several charities in the South East Asian region. It is only the second such event to be hosted by the Cebu City Rugby Club and was refreshingly old-fashioned in its organisation. That comment is meant in the best possible way. As we see tournaments such as the Manila Tens evolve into slick extravaganzas it was somewhat nostalgic to attend an event being put on by rugby enthusiasts for rugby enthusiasts with no razzamatazz whatsoever. True, the games didn’t start exactly on time, the touch judge’s flags had been knocked up from some plastic piping and old carrier bags and the pitch was bone hard. But who cares? This was real grass-roots rugby and the day was enjoyed by one and all.
Cebu, above all teams in the Philippines have fostered the interest and participation of local players, to such an extent that their third team the Barbarians fielded four female players throughout the day. They have also engendered a fantastic spirit which crosses over any cultural, financial or racial divides and this all augurs well for the growth of the sport in the Visayas.
Images courtesy: Gaia Leigh Lising
