Some valuable lessons
Those who attended Nomads Sports Club on Saturday afternoon were treated to a good honest game of fifteen-a-side rugby when a Manila Barbarians team took on touring club side Olney R.F.C. from Buckinghamshire in England.
Sadly for the rugby purist there is a dearth of opportunities in the Philippines to play the sport in its true form, with the preponderance of tournaments involving abbreviated forms of the game; sevens and tens tending to dominate the season in the Philippines. By their very nature the shortened versions of rugby with all the extra space available inspire a looser, more off the cuff style of play and the transition to fifteens caught the Barbarians team flat footed.
In their defence the Barbarians side, comprised of players from the Eagles and Nomads was only assembled on the day and were playing a club side; albeit not all from their first team, who have just completed a full seven month season of fifteens rugby.
The first twenty minute quarter was dominated by Olney both in terms of possession and territory. Although the Barbarians pack stood up remarkably well at the scrums the bigger, stronger and well drilled visiting forwards administered some harsh but very valuable lessons in the results of failure to post up and defend around the fringes of the rucks and to thwart the danger of the rolling maul. Four tries were run in by Olney who must have thought they were in for a virtual walkover, before the Barbarians, living off scraps countered from deep, a clever off load from Rupert Zappia putting away his outside backs and Barny Hooky running in unchallenged under the posts. The conversion being successful, the score stood at twenty points to seven at the first break and was not a true reflection of Olney’s supremacy.
The second quarter saw both teams score two tries, one of the Barbarians being converted; but it was still Olney who dominated the possession stakes and looked far more structured in defence and even more so in attack. What little ball the Barbarians won their forwards repeatedly squandered by persisting in a futile attempt to meet fire with fire and take the visitors on in close. At the half time break the score-line, at 30-21 was still somewhat flattering to the local team whose tries through Pitts and Zappia had come against the run of play.
The start of the third quarter signaled the start of a turnaround in the game. The Barbarians finally realised it was crucial not to allow the opposition forwards to make yardage at every opportunity and it was apparent from one to fifteen that their level of commitment to the unglamorous defensive work required had increased. Ian Taylor, certainly a man for all positions typified this attitude. Filling in at lock forward Taylor, who is normally to be found in the three quarters repeatedly put his body on the line in attempt to staunch the onslaught of the Olney pack.
His efforts, amongst many other valiant second half performances; including some text book tackling by Suresh Mustafa, in conjunction with an obviously tiring opposition allowed the Barbarians to begin to put their stamp on the game. The third quarter was scoreless and with Olney captain Jack Sutton in the bin for illegal use of the boot there was a glimmer of hope of an unexpected victory.
Alas for the home crowd it was not to be. Sutton’s re-entry to the fray with fifteen minutes to go picked up his side and although the Barbarians added another fine try through Pitts they were to fall just short at 30-28.
Olney despite having played an eighty minute game in Cebu on Wednesday evening along with all the excesses that go with touring had enough resolve and just enough fuel in the tank to hang on and take a hundred per cent record home from their visit to the Philippines.
Many lessons can be taken from this match as the Philippine teams enter the fifteen-a-side season. The foremost of these is that as a forward you cannot hide from hard work. It is also necessary for all of the participating teams to work hard on fitness levels and the more structured patterns of play which are required.
There will doubtless have been some bruised and battered bodies on Sunday morning, but that is one of the insane pleasures of having played a real game of rugby.
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