The Philippine Under 19 rugby team got off to a solid start in the first game of the Asian Championships in Kaohsiung, Taiwan on Monday.

Playing against Guam (at the Taiwan Military Academy), the Philippines maintained their discipline and ground out a 12 – 3 win against a Guam team with a very physical forward pack.

The game was marred by some bizarre refereeing decisions which resulted in an astonishing amount of penalties being awarded ( 50 ) and a total of 10 players being sin-binned.

The scoring was opened on 19 minutes with a try coming from a quick tap penalty taken by scrum half Jake Letts who fed flanker Andrew Barbacetto to force his way over in the corner. The conversion attempt was missed and late in the first half Guam scored from a penalty kick to leave the game evenly poised at 5 – 3.

The second half followed a similar pattern to the first with determined tackling by both teams and only six minutes in a crunching hit by centre David Carmen caused the Guam centre to spill the ball in midfield. This was scooped up by No 8 Juan Engelbrecht who showed an excellent turn of speed in out-sprinting the defending wing and scoring the Philippines’ second try.

Among many stellar performances on the day lock Ryan Laughter excelled at the lineout winning six balls against the throw. Also the game was marshaled well by captain and scrum half Jake Letts.

Next up are Brunei on Wednesday and the Philippine team are quietly confident.