PHILIPPINE VOLCANOES BEAT SRI LANKA IN THRILLING RUGBY FINAL
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 22 Apr 2012
The Philippine ?Volcanoes? beat top seeds Sri Lanka 28-18 in a thrilling final of the HSBC 5Nations tournament at the Rizal Memorial Stadium before a wildly cheering crowd and earned the right to compete against the top five teams in Asia led by the awesome Japanese squad.
The Sri Lankan?s terrible place kicking gave the Volcanoes the advantage in the first half as the regularly failed to find touch and instead kicked the ball straight into the hands of the Volcanoes who capitalized to take a comfortable 23 points to 3 lead at halftime.
The Lankans also missed a penalty attempt and two conversions which cost them 7 vital points.
Cheered on by a small band of flag-waving Sri Lankans who were overwhelmed by the support of Filipino fans for the Volcanoes, the Sri Lankan Lions came charging back in the second half to give the Volcanoes some truly anxious moments.
With the score at 23-18 and 13 minutes remaining in the match, momentum was on the side of the Sri Lankans but strong Volcanoes center Justin Coveney dashed all hopes of a stunning comeback victory when he picked up a chip from fly half Oliver Saunders to ram through the Sri Lanka defense almost unchallenged to score a try and give the Philippines a 28-18 advantage which they hung on to, until the end.
The Volcanoes 28 points came from two goals (converted tries), one try that was not converted and three penalties. Sri Lanka?s 18 points came from one goal, one try and two penalties.
The Philippines first try came in the 29th minute when skipper Michael Letts rammed through the Sri Lanka defense to score a spectacular try which was converted by Saunders. The second try came courtesy of winger Joe Matthews who made a scintillating run to touch down following a penetrating three quarter move.
Sri Lanka Sunday Observer?s Dinesh Weerawansa reported that Sri Lanka?s forwards powered by Namal Rajapaksa ?probably the first serving parliamentarian to represent the national team, gave new life to the game in the second half.?
The Lankan Lions scored 15 points in the second 40 minutes beginning with an unconverted try in the 8th minute by Gayan Ratnayake after an excellent Sri Lanka maul although Mubarak failed to convert.
The second Sri Lanka try came in the 23rd minute of the second half when Sumeda Malawana touched down but again the Sri Lankans failed to convert before Mubarak converted a much-needed penalty to make it 23-18 in the 27th minute of the second half before Coveney sealed the well-deserved win for the Philippines against a gallant Sri Lankan squad.
An overjoyed and relieved Volcanoes coach Expo Mejia said, ?Today was a win for the Filipino people. The people came out in numbers and the guys went out and won for their country. It was a beautiful thing.This team definitely has the talent to stay in the Top 5 next season. We need to work on our structures a bit more and make sure we have all of our players available but we have started something here in the Philippines and we plan to build on that.?
Sri Lanka?s new coach Phil Greening, the former England hooker who has been with the team for just five weeks was clearly the architect of the second half comeback with the adjustments he made.
Greening noted ?We are a young team and I think we showed a lot of character. The one thing we will take from this is that if we don?t execute things right in test rugby you get punished. It is about the small details and the small margins and we weren?t ready for that in the first half and that cost us but they?ll learn. With a 19-year old flyhalf in his first tests we still managed to put the Philippines under a lot of pressure.?
Greening added, ?We have only had them for four weeks but we have had a taste of being so close now and we will go back to Sri Lanka and take the next step forward rather than a step back.?
The win marked an amazing run by the Volcanoes who began in the Asian 5Nations in Division IV in 2008 and have advanced all the way to Division I making them second to Japan as the most successful Asian team after losing only once in four years to South Korea in last year?s Division I semi-final.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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