THE Philippine Junior Volcanoes will be in Hong Kong this week to take part in the Asia Under 20 Rugby Sevens Championships.
Their participation is backed by First Pacific. They will be led by experienced head coach David Johnston and his assistant, senior Men’s veteran Jake Robrigado Letts, an experienced member of the sevens game.
The tournament will be held at Kings Park on August 4 and 5.
The Junior Volcanoes are in Pool A with last year’s winners Sri Lanka followed by Malaysia, China, and Chinese Taipei.
Pool B will have last year’s runners up Korea alongside home favorites Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, and Uzbekistan.
The team has been in a high performance training camp since Friday.
This is the final phase of their preparations before departure on Thursday.
The national U20s is the Philippine Rugby Football Union’s youth program designed to develop, identify and train national rugby players to be transferred into the national men’s senior program.
Among the key members of the team are Gabriel Lingan, Andrew Rodolfo Baldado and Josh Heredia Miller.
They have been selected back into the program after their performances in last year’s series.
The Volcanoes have adopted a youth policy to ensure players are able to participate in the tournament on more than one occasion.
“It’s been a productive week for the team. Dave and I have been working closely to ensure the team is best prepared come Saturday,” said Letts.