Out muscled

The match started in very humid conditions; however the pitch had benefited from two days of rain and was not the bone shaking rock hard surface that it was for the Cebu 10s Tournament the previous weekend.

Cebu Dragons welcomed the touring Olney R.F.C. from Buckinghamshire, UK to Aboitiz Field on Wednesday evening for their first floodlit, and only their third, 15 a side game.

The mainly young Filipino Dragons ably assisted by a smattering of aged Brits, French, South Africans and Kiwis started strongly against the Level 5 side from England, containing seven of their normal 1st XV in their starting line-up.

The home side shocked the tourists by scoring first through quick ball to the centres and Hola Iketau broke two tackles to sprint from halfway to score under the posts, duly converted by scrum-half Jerry Branzuela.

From the restart Olney started to use their huge forwards and despite the brave tackling from Cebu, notably skipper Noel Flowers, club founder member Damian Allison, flanker Don Bartolata, and Philippines national Under 20s representative Lester Loma, Olney’s pick and go tactics from the ruck and domination of the set-piece began to tell on the home side.

When in possession Cebu looked very dangerous throughout the game, unfortunately they gave away too many turnovers through lack of support, and Olney through their support play, bigger forwards and well-drilled teamwork kept the scoreboard ticking over, eventually running out 51-7 winners on the night.

Urged on by a crowd of several hundred, Cebu never stopped trying, narrowly failing to score on two or three occasions, especially on one occasion when pulled back by the over fussy referee for a knock-on.

Despite the score it was another great learning curve for the Dragons and for the future of Philippines rugby in general.

After a very enjoyable match the evening carried on to the Out of Africa restaurant, where following presentations the local diners were entertained by a few rousing traditional rugby songs (clean ones, I may add).

Another first was that the evening celebrated Cebu stalwart prop Dave Maynard’s testimonial match.

Cebu Dragons wish Olney well for their game in Manila on Saturday and would like to thank Olney, the first UK tourists to Cebu, for their visit and especially for the coaching clinic they put on for the kids of Operation Restore Hope (Cebu Dragons charity), The Pink Dragons and the Junior Dragons.

 

Text courtesy: Phil Mounsey

Images courtesy: Marcus Johns