Philippines national rugby union team

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Philippines

Union

Philippine Rugby Football Union

Nickname(s)

Volcanoes

Coach

Mike McMahon

Captain

Romain Barberis

Top scorer

Dean Nelson





Team colours

First international

Philippines 18-14 Guam
(May 20, 2006)

Largest win

Philippines 18-14 Guam
(May 20, 2006)

Worst defeat

Philippines 3-24 Pakistan
(June 10, 2006)

The Philippine national rugby union team (also known as the "Volcanoes") is the newly established rugby union national team of the Philippines.

Since Filipinos are largely unaware of rugby, the team is seen as one of the weakest teams in the world. However, the team won their first international test match when they beat Guam, 18-14 in Guam, with approximately half of the squad composed of Filipino-heritage players and the other half of long term resident expatriates.

The Philippine Rugby Football Union, which was formed in 1999 and was composed primarily of expatriates, with only a few Filipino players. Different local clubs and schools (such as Brent International School, International School Manila and the Manila Nomads) started introducing rugby union to the country.

The major academy where Rugby Union is played in the Philippines is the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP). They formed the first all-Filipino rugby team and it was this team who first appeared in the 2003 Manila Rugby 10s tournament that showed the world that Filipinos can play Rugby Union.

Success also came to a 100% Filipino-heritage team when the Philippines won the 2005 Southeast Asian Games rugby sevens tournament (as a demonstration sport), beating Indonesia, 32-5 on December 2005.