THE Philippine Junior Volcanoes u14s and u16s National Teams travelled to play in the Bangkok Asian Juniors’ championships against regional teams from Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Hong Kong.
The National u14 and u16 teams were selected from the Philippine Schools League, which was played from December until February and then the National Teams trained for the International Tour to Thailand.
In their debut tournament, the Junior Volcanoes proved they can match up with the best teams in South East Asia with the u16s team winning the Cup Division championships by defeating Malaysia in the final, 3–0.
The Junior Volcano u16s team won all their round games and entered the final against a strong Malaysian team, which they had narrowly beaten, 5–0, when they met in the round stages. The final game was an arm wrestle, with both underage age teams throwing everything into the defense and the game hung in the balance.
Finally, the Philippines was awarded a penalty and Josh Aho stormed onto the ball and dragged four Malaysian players with him over 15 meters and won a penalty in front of the posts.
When the game finished, it was Reed Santos from the CBRE Maverick’s club, who landed the penalty goal in extra time to award the team the Asian u16 championship.
Team coach Paul Retzlaff could not be more pleased with his first u16 championship.
“Defense wins championships and the Junior Volcanoes proved this by only conceding 2 tries in 6 game over the weekend,” said Retzlaff.
The Junior Volcano u14s team were equally impressive and with a team of 12 and 13 year players they met Thailand in the Plate Final and ran out winners by 19 – 10 with Keanu Faynot scoring two tries and Rand Santos kicking 3 conversions.
The u14s ended the weekend with 4 wins, 1 lose and 1 draw and they will return next year confident of defending their title.
The PRFU Director of Rugby Matt Cullen was very impressed with the National u14s and u16s results.
“Both the National u14 and u16 showed they can match it with the best teams in South East Asia with the u16s winning the Cup and the u14s winning the plate at the Asian Junior Championships. This was our first time to play in this tournament and we have certainly left a mark by winning in both divisions on out first attempt,” said Cullen.
