Filipinos join the scrum
29th July 2010 by Andrew Matheson, Manila | 1 Comment
Filipinos are basketball crazy, and it seems there are courts in every village in the country. And where there aren’t basketball courts, people are still out shooting hoops in dusty backyards and on the roads. It’s almost up there with the passion for cricket that I’ve seen in India and Pakistan.
So you might not think of the Philippines as a rugby nation. A few years ago that would have been a good assumption, but things are changing rapidly in the sport here.
The Philippine Rugby Football Union has done an excellent job in transforming the sport in this country. The organisation is only just over 10 years old, and until about five years ago rugby was still mainly for expats. It would be fair to say the sport had a strong social component, too.
Rugby in the Philippines is now played mostly by Filipinos, and the Philippine union has become a member of the International Rugby Board. That means they have a full range of teams including 15s, 7s, age-group teams (such as under 20s) and women’s teams. A new national rugby stadium is under construction. I’ve been impressed that the drive of a few individuals has achieved so much in a short time.
An important source of team members is Filipino expats, particularly those who have grown up in a rugby-playing country such as Australia and returned to live in the Philippines and play representative rugby. I’m sure that as the number of Piwis increases in New Zealand, we will see Filipinos return from there to contribute to the sport too.
We at the embassy will be working to promote the Rugby World Cup, which of course is being held in New Zealand next year. We’ll be encouraging rugby enthusiasts, Filipinos and expats alike, to make it to this massive ‘festival of rugby’.
Meanwhile, Kiwi and Aussie rugby enthusiasts in the Philippines will have their eyes on the Bledisloe Cup contest. Each year the joint Australia/New Zealand chamber of commerce in the Philippines organises a function around one of the games, and this year the transtasman get-together is on Saturday 7 August.
No matter what the result on the field, it will be a closely-watched event.
While it may be undeniable that cricket is the rage in neighbouring India and Pakistan, Pinoys possess a zeal for basketball and excel in a sport that is theoretically ‘suited’ for taller players. If size is misleading when it comes to the atom, the future of rugby football in my country looks promising. Mabuhay =)