Promoting Rugby League in Zambales

 

 

Promoting “The Greatest Game of All”, Rugby League to the people of Olongapo and San Narciso in the province of Zambales has been a very rewarding experience for the players in the Philippines National Rugby League (PNRL), PAL Tamaraws national team.

The players were overwhelmed with the reception from the local Filipinos and touched bytheir support.

Rugby League promotions organised by PNRL board member Tom Simpson and his wife Marlyn, commenced with a visit to San Narciso’s Town Hall for an official welcome to the town by Mayor Peter Lim and Barangay Captain Napoleon Angeles.

Zambales Academy was the first school visited by the PAL Tamaraws with the Principal and Student Leaders waiting to officially greet them on the front steps of the school’s main building. The players were overwhelmed by students wanting to have their pictures takenwith them, sign autographs and participate in a Rugby League clinic.

At the local Catholic school, Magsaysay Memorial College, the entire school were assembledin the quadrangle or peering through the 2nda glimpse at these Filipino-heritage players holding onto strange looking oval shaped balls.

Later, the players were again swamped with request for photos and autographs from the students and teachers.

The final school visited on the day was very special for the PAL Tamaraws because it can be said that La Paz National High School is the first Rugby League School in the Philippines, as 50 of their students are playing for the San Narciso Junior Rugby League team.

Some players were brought to tears as the entire school sang a song they wrote especially to welcome them to their school, as well as the endless request for photos and autographs from students who were no strangers to the game of Rugby League.

With time running short the players left for their final visit of the day to the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy (PMMA), the site of the October 21, International match against the Thailand Stars and the birthplace of the Philippines’ first Rugby League only playing College.

Being a Merchant Marine institution, the players were greeted with the very formal traditions of welcoming VIP guests with a guard of honour standing to attention to greet them and all 30 cadet Rugby League players forming a guard of honour for the National side as theywent into the grandstand full of cadets in dress uniform and Rear Admiral Richard U. Ritual waiting to greet them.

PNRL Board Member Chris Van Putten landed a coupe for the PNRL by negotiating a team presentation at SM Mall, which is equivalent to Australia’s Westfield shopping mall chains.It was not surprising that a cinema holding 300 patrons was full to capacity when the PAL Tamaraws were presented to the people of Olongapo City. The highlight of the Philippines Rugby League calendar is a 9s tournament with the inaugural event held in Clark in 2012 and this year’s second event held at the PMMA with over 1,000 local people attending the 9am to 4:30pm tournament, a great turnout.

The PAL Tamaraw players lent a helping hand in the tournament by running Rugby League clinics with the children and coaching them in their touch football competition.

This was the first time some of these teams have participated in any form of oval ball tournament and all were excited. With the two PMMA teams only training since April and the TMS “Titans” only picking up the sport three weeks ago.

So it was pleasing to see that there were two new teams that contested the final of the touch football competition with the PMMA Number 1 team and TMS “Titans” beating the more experienced Anscor Swires “Lites” and Don Bosco Technical Institute “Knights”.

The touch football final may have even broken some records with the final going into three extra time periods with player numbers being reduced from 9 to 7 to 5 then 3 players.

This year the 9s event had its first ever full contact competition with two Filipino-Australian teams in the Clark City Crusaders and Cebu City Chiefs making their debut against local sides MAAP Warriors and MAAP Kings hailing from the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific from Mariveles city.

The tournament was close with all Filipino-Australian teams impressed with the skill, commitment and courage of the MAAP Warriors and Kings teams. With special mention going to Cadet Kennex Bastian Corpuz who scored plenty of tries for the Warriors with his burst of speed and almost stealing an upset win over the Cebu city Chiefs with a heart wrenching 3 tries to 4 loss at the end of their match.

Sergie Mariano of the Kings was another surprise packet for the Filipino-Australian teams, as he kept on carting the ball up like a Tamaraw, all day and was solid in defence.

For the record, the winners of the Zambales International 9s were the Clark City Crusaders with a 5 try to 3 win over the Cebu City Chiefs.

The PNRL is a non-stock, non-profit volunteer organization which is the governing body of Rugby League Football in the Philippines.

The Philippines is an observer member of both the Asia-Pacific Rugby League Confederation (APRLC) and the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF).