Rugby levels up

The Philippine Rugby Football Union Volcanoes played their first-ever match in the Hong Kong Sevens against Canada yesterday. The match was being played as of this writing. Today, the Volcanoes take on Spain and Zimbabwe, with the hope of winning at least one of their matches against some of the best teams in the world.

Last week, HSBC and the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) announced the competition schedule for the Asian 5 Nations 2012 (A5N), the fifth year of the Asia’s premier international rugby competition, and the tournament is poised to chart new growth across the region from the elite level to the grassroots in 2012.

Founded in 1968 with eight members, the ARFU today has 28 member and associate member unions around Asia. In the last five years, the Philippines has consistently beaten more established countries with a combination of solid coaching and recruitment, climbing into the top 50 in the world. Last year, our women’s team made its debut n he Hong Kong Sevens.

The 2012 calendar features big milestones, including several new high-profile international coaches, an increasingly tight competition, an expanded competitive format for Division 1 and the debut competition for ARFU’s newest associate member union, Afghanistan. This season, 34 matches will be held across the Top 5 and five Divisional tournaments involving 25 ARFU member unions in eight nations. Historically, A5N has hosted 114 matches in 17 countries around the region, 21 of which have been broadcast to more than 30 countries around the world since 2008.

“The last five years has seen a tremendous growth in the interest and participation in Asian rugby,” ARFU president Adisak Hemyoo of Thailand said. “The tournament has been able to raise the profile of Asian rugby around the region and the world, with a special focus on engaging new audiences, particularly at youth level. Asian rugby fans are once again eagerly anticipating this year’s A5N as we begin the countdown to Rugby World Cup 2015 qualification.”

The Philippines, which started at the bottom Level 4 (since then, a lower Level 5 has been introduced), has constantly been sweeping, losing for the first time in Level 1 to Korea, which was relegated from Elite Level Play because half their team was tied up with pro teams in Japan. Last year’s Top 5 was evenly contested with the relegation battle coming down to Kazakhstan maintaining its place by beating Sri Lanka at home. Sri Lanka will be replaced by Korea, which recovered its status at the expense of the Volcanoes.

Division 1 kicks off action in 2012. The Philippines will host the A5N tournament from April 15-21 at Rizal Memorial Football Stadium. For the first time, the four teams, Sri Lanka, Chinese Taipei, Singapore and the Philippines will play a round-robin elimination, instead of winner vs. winner and loser vs. loser. The games will be carried b ABS-CBN and ESPN. A production team from Hong Kong flew in recently to inspect the pitch a Rizal Memorial and meet with ABS-CBN Sports executives.

“This is what we’ve been working for the last six or seven years,” says head coach Matt Cullen. “The boys are excited that they will finally be seen all over their country, and not just as media sensations from their billboards.”

Philippine rugby is still climbing after winning promotion last season and making its debut in the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens this weekend, But Sri Lanka is being led by former England international Phil Greening on a two-year coaching contract.

Statistically, the United Nations estimates that the majority of the world’s youth (nearly 85%) live in developing regions. Approximately 60 percent of the youth 15 to 24 year old live in Asia.