Volcanoes aim to end slump in Asia Rugby Championship

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Volcanoes seek to snap a five-year title drought when they vie in the Asia Rugby Championship (ARC) Division 1 tournament on May 14-20 in Ipoh, Malaysia.

“Our target is to win. We’re going there to win,” Volcanoes captain Oliver Saunders said during the team’s jersey presentation ceremonies recently at Gigawatt Power, Inc. (GPI) Building in Taguig.

Out to foil the Filipinos in their mission of winning the Division 1 hostilities for the first time since 2012 are Sri Lanka, defending champion Malaysia and United Arab Emirates.

“It’s gonna be a tough week,” said the veteran Saunders, who leads a 25-man squad that includes Jake Letts, Austin Dacanay, Harry Morris, Justin Coveney, Ned Stephenson and Joe Dawson.

“All the teams will be tough in this competition. Malaysia won last year while UAE was promoted from Division 2 so they’ll be looking to cement their place in Division 1. Sri Lanka is always tough, we played them three or four times before and each game was decided in the last play of the team,” said Saunders.

The Volcanoes held a training camp for 10 days to gear up for the tourney, the second-tier 15s competition whose winner gets the chance to challenge for a spot in the centerpiece Tri-Nations where elite countries Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea are competing.

“We’ve been in preparation since last week. We have done a lot of work and we're confident by the first game, we’ll be fully prepared for the big tournament,” said Saunders, who has been with the Phl team since 2007.

Third placers in the 2016 edition, the Pinoy ruggers aim to strike gold this time as they kick off their campaign against Sri Lanka on Sunday then battle the host Malaysians on Wednesday and finally wrap it up against UAE on Saturday.

The teams will play in a single round robin action with the top-of-the table side winning the championship. A team gets four points for a win, two points for a draw, one bonus point for four tries or more and one bonus point for losing by seven or less.