Olympic dream for Pinoy rugby

MANILA, Philippines — Take it from Ada Milby, the Philippine Rugby Football Union secretary-general and one of the world’s 50 most influential people in the sport. The Philippines has a realistic chance of someday qualifying for the Olympics in rugby 7s. Milby says the game is so unpredictable that the outcome is never a sure thing until the last second.

Milby, 37, made her international debut as a Philippine rugby player in 2012 and saw action in two Southeast Asian Games. In 2015, she was on the women’s team that took the bronze medal at the SEA Games. That same year, the Philippine men’s team captured the gold. In the SEA Games last December, the men’s team compiled a perfect 5-0 record to clinch the gold while the women’s squad settled for the silver.

Rugby in the SEA Games used to be the 15-a-side, 80-minute contest of “rugby union.” In the 2007 SEA Games, the Philippine men’s team bagged the silver in rugby union with Andrew Wolff, Michael Letts and the three Saunders brothers in the lineup. The 7s format was adopted in 2015 and has since been a fixture in the SEA Games. The 7s contest is seven-a-side with two halves of seven minutes each.

“Rugby 7s is so exciting,” says Milby. “You can be down entering the last minute and still come out on top. The pace, speed and sometimes the luck of the draw can make the difference. That’s why I think the Philippines could someday make it to the Olympics.”

Last November, the fifth-seeded Philippine men’s team competed in the Asian Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Incheon and finished fourth. The Volcanoes ripped Singapore, 21-12 and Sri Lanka, 24-17 but lost to Hong Kong, 26-0 and twice to China, 26-15 and 19-14. The second defeat to China by a five-point margin was a playoff for the bronze medal. If the Philippines finished third, it would’ve advanced to the repechage Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Biarritz, France, on June 20-21.

Milby became the first woman to sit on the World Rugby Council in 2017 and heads the gender inclusion committee of Asia Rugby. She was recently named by Rugby World Magazine as one of the world’s 50 most influential figures in the sport. “It’s through her administrative roles…that she is able to make the biggest impact,” said Rugby World. “Milby recognizes that ‘change is a process, not a decision’ and is focused on highlighting the benefits of rugby ‘in a region where sport isn’t valued nearly on the same scale as education’…Asia can be a huge growth market for rugby and Milby has a central role to play.”

Since joining the World Rugby Council, Milby says the sport has grown exponentially on a global scale. “Asia hosted the 2019 World Cup and Japan became the first Asian country to make it to the quarterfinals,” she notes. “With inroads in gender inclusion, the rugby landscape has changed with more space for women to be directly involved in governance. My role as an administrator and former player is unique. As an administrator, I try not to lose track of my focus as an athlete. There are many challenges along the way but I hope my role opens the doors for more athletes to get involved in issues that relate to growing the sport.”

Milby says being named among the world’s 50 most influential people in rugby was a surprise. “I had no idea I was even being considered,” she says. “I’m honored, humbled and happy to represent the Philippines in this prestigious list. Right now, my focus is getting rugby restarted to practice and play. We’ve drafted safety protocols and we’re submitting our restart proposal to the IATF.” She’s determined to pursue promoting rugby at the grassroots level with schools and LGUs as partners once the situation is back to normal.

Milby, who served in Iraq as a US Army staff sergeant, is a Fil-Am whose father Lloyd is an American and mother Elsie Ronquillo Lacia is from Surigao del Sur. She grew up in Ohio and settled in the Philippines in 2011. A figure skater and American football player in high school, she was introduced to rugby while earning a Business Management degree at DeVry University in Illinois.