FILIPINO RUGBY TWO BLUES

With the Asian International Rugby Union Season upon us current and prospective Filipino-Heritage Rugby Union Internationals are hard at work with the Parramatta Two Blues Rugby Union Club preparing for the Asian 5 Nations (A5N) Division 3 tournament being held at the University of Makati in the Philippines between the 1st and 4th of July.

The Parramatta Two Blues Club has had a long history of developing Filipino-heritage Rugby Union players since the start of this decade with players like Chris Woo and the Isidro Brothers Timothy and Troy coming up through their Colts ranks.

With the Philippines Rugby Football Union (PRFU) still in its infancy the club played a major role in the Philippines first International victory with then Head Coach Gary Ella being brought to the Philippines through the sponsorship of local Parramatta business Focused Business Solutions and current PRFU Rugby 7s Head Coach Rick Hartley and his Philippines based business RJH consultancy to coach the PRFU’s Rugby 7s team in the 23rd South East Asian (SEA) games in Manila in 2005 where Rugby 7’s was a site sport, with the Philippines winning the Gold Medal, defeating Indonesia 32-5 in the final.

The club offered more assistance to the PRFU for the 24th SEA games in Thailand in 2007 by allowing a Filipino-Heritage team to trial against the club in September and releasing their 1st Grade Coach Alan Macdonald to accompany the team to Thailand in December to act as a specialist coach supporting the PRFU Rugby 7s Head Coach Rick Hartley where the team won a Silver medal for the Philippines being piped 28 – 14 in the final by Thailand.

With the encouragement of Parramatta Two Blue’s 2008 1st Grade Coach Alan Macdonald the Zappia brothers, Rafael and Rupert and Saunders brothers, Oliver and Matthew played for the club, and all four young men played pivotal roles for the Philippines in winning the 2008 A5N regional tournament by defeating Guam and Brunei.

This year current Philippines Rugby Internationals Rafael Zappia and Kim Hillis and U20 International Graem Stevens and prospective Internationals William Turk, Marcus Casaclang and Cleo Gomez have all made their presence felt in the Two Blues club especially the performances of Kim and Graem in the Parramatta Two Blues Colts team. All are keen to make this year’s Philippines International side next July and play their part in another Philippines Rugby International tournament victory.

With sponsorships hard to come by with the present state of the Australian and International economy the Parramatta Two Blues club is currently in a rebuilding stage and is struggling as an amateur club in what is a professional Sydney Rugby competition. But the fight has not gone out of the club, with this weeks Round 8 Shute shield 24-19 win against Warringah Rugby Union club which coincidently have 3 Filipino-heritage Rugby Union Internationals also playing in their ranks.

The Filipino Two Blues players performed their part in this Round 8 competition too, with Rafael Zappia potting over a conversion in the Henderson Shield match and Graem Stevens playing his part in the Colts side 31 -21 win over Warringah.

The PRFU and its Rugby 7s Head Coach Rick Hartley would like to thank the Parramatta Two Blues club for their continuing work with developing Filipino-heritage rugby players and making them feel welcome in the Two Blues family. The Club would welcome any support from the Filipino community in Australia as the club rebuilds this season. Go to the Club’s website for further information on playing for or offering assistance to the club www.twoblues.rugbynet.com.au.

For more information on Philippines Rugby visit their website www.prfu.com or email their Australian based contact, Erick Elefante, PRFU Regional Representative for Australia and Asia Pacific Region on prfufriendster@yahoo.com

We would like to acknowledge Raiya Isrin for the photo with Graem Stevens, Cleo Gomez, Raf Zappia < Marcus Casaclang from left to right (photo has been photo shopped - Graem is not bigger than Cleo).