Volcanoes fail to erupt, bow to Japan

MANILA, Philippines - It was a nightmarish debut for the Philippine Volcanoes in the Elite Division of the Asian 5 Nations (A5N) rugby union competition but while last Saturday’s 121-0 loss to top-seed Japan in Fukuoka stung like crazy, coach Jarred Hodges’ charges are far from knocked out with three matches to go in the five-week, five-team war.

The Volcanoes arrived from Fukuoka last night and will try to bounce back against Hong Kong at the Rizal Memorial Stadium on May 4 before facing South Korea at the Ansan-Wa Stadium in Ansan City on May 11 and the United Arab Emirates at the Rizal Memorial Stadium on May 18.

“Now that Japan is out of the way, we can concentrate on our remaining matches,” said Philippine Rugby Football Union (PRFU) operations consultant Matt Cullen. “Our goal is to stay in the Elite Division and we want to be a better team than before. Sometimes, you need to lose to improve. It took four years of hard work to get to where we are. Losing to Japan was a reality check. That was only the second loss in our last 12 matches since 2008.”

Cullen said bowing to Japan was expected. “We arm-wrestled them in the first half but they were just too big, strong and experienced,” said Cullen. “Last year, Japan beat the second seed Hong Kong, 67-0, so they’re used to blowing out opponents. Japan is by far the best team in Asia and they’re unbeaten in 21 straight A5N matches going back to 2008. Man for man, they outweighed us by 50 to 60 kilos and that’s a lot of mass to give up. I thought the referee made it even tougher for us because Japan got away with pushing even before the ball went in during scrums. But that’s experience for you. We learned a lot of lessons from that match.”

Cullen said four reinforcements are coming to beef up the Volcanoes for the crucial matches against South Korea and the Emirates. “We didn’t play our strongest team against Japan,” he continued. “Oliver (Saunders) is out with an ACL injury. But we’re bringing in Luke Matthews, Phil Abraham, Nick Perry and Michael de Guzman. We’ll get an upgrade in mass and strength. The loss to Japan should make us tougher. This is a five-week tournament and we’ve just started.”

Former PRFU president Alvin San Diego said the setback will test the Volcanoes’ character. “I don’t think it will bring down our confidence,” he said. “On the contrary, I think it’s a building block. It just goes to show how much work we still need to do to get to the next level. I’m optimistic we’ll do better next time. Our advantage is our backline where we’ve got six players in the Japanese professional league. But our backs hardly got the ball. Our forwards must be stronger and they’ll get better with more experience. We’ve got only one player who’s based in the Philippines, David Feeney, an expat. The others come from different countries. David is the only foreigner in our team and qualifies under the three-year residency rule. Other countries like Hong Kong are loaded with at least 50 percent expats but we like our team to be made up mostly of players with Filipino heritage.”

Japan has played in every World Cup of Rugby since its inception in 1987 but has won only once, a 52-8 thrashing of Zimbabwe in 1991. The team called the Brave (formerly Cherry) Blossoms drew with Canada in 2007 and 2011. The romp over the Philippines was nothing new to Japan which crushed Chinese-Taipei twice, 155-3 and 120-3, in 2002. In rugby union history, three big blowouts were Australia’s 142-0 lacing of Namibia at the 2003 World Cup and Argentina’s blasting of Paraguay, 152-0 in 2002 and 144-0 in 2003.

The Volcanoes had two chances to mark but Gareth de la Rosa Holgate muffed a pair of penalties. “We worked very hard for the first 30 minutes,” said Hodges, the National Coaching Director of the Lloyd McDermott Rugby Development Team which introduces the game to aborigines in Australia. “We missed a couple of kicks that could have made it 10-6. After that, Japan played to their strengths. They were a class above. Japan is the benchmark in Asian rugby and showed us what it takes to be at that level. They were too big, too strong and too fast.”

Japan opened a 43-0 lead at intermission and never blinked the rest of the way despite losing 35-year-old veteran Hirotoki Onozawa to an injury nine minutes into the second half. Onozawa is the fourth leading try scorer in rugby history and only two caps away from matching retired star Yuki Motoki’s all-time record of 79 with the Blossoms.  The winning score was the highest ever in A5N history and the fourth highest in a World Cup qualifier.

Volcanoes captain Michael Letts said, “We’ll learn from that and I can tell you now we will be a completely different side for our next three games.” Japan coach Eddie Jones, 53, paid tribute to the Volcanoes saying, “The Philippines is different from other Asian teams in that a lot of them have got a background in Australian rugby and rugby league … they are good ball-carriers and tacklers and a lot of them have Top League (Japan’s professional competition) experience.” Jones, an Australian, piloted his home country to the finals of the 2003 World Cup and took the Japan job last December. An army of 13 Blossoms, including four rookies, touched down for Japan which registered only 21 tackles on the Volcanoes’ limited ball possessions. In contrast, the Philippines worked hard to record 101 tackles.

The Philippines is the eighth team to crash the A5N Elite Division since 2008. Three of the Volcanoes playing in the Japan pro league are Holgate and James Carandang Price with the Kyuden Voltex and Justin Villazor Coveney with the Coca-Cola Red Sparks. Most of the Volcanoes compete in Australia’s premier league.