It was a great day of 7-A-side rugby for the opening round of the PRFU 7’s League last Saturday 01 October. And even more exiting was the fact that we had Men’s, Women’s and Junior’s games. Held at the Ayala Alabang Country Club and hosted by Alabang Eagles the weather was just about perfect – not too hot and a little overcast. However, the very, very, very heavy downpour on Friday night resulted in the pitch being very, very wet and it soon chopped up into a sticky mud bath. This meant that the going was heavy and the ball alternately as slippy as a bar of soap or just dropping dead without a bounce or roll in a patch of soft mud. These conditions are a great leveler and the young fit fast backs get slowed down to the pace of the older, heavier (and maybe less fit) forwards.

The games are being played in 2 Divisions, A & B. Division A has 4 teams - Nomads, Alabang Eagles, Nomads Carabaos and MAAP 1 - and Division B is split into B1 and B2 to accommodate the 7 teams who have entered. These are Alabang Ibon, Nomads Lizards, Philippine Air Force 1 (PAF 1) and Makati Chiefs in Division B1 and Cebu City RFC, PAF 2 and MAAP 2 in Division B2.

The League will be played over 4 weeks and at the end each team will have played all the others twice in their respective division. Points are awarded – 4 for win, 2 for draw and 0 for lose – with a bonus point for any team scoring 4 tries or more and also for losing the game by less than 7 points (i.e. by less than one converted try). There will then be Finals played between the top two teams in Division A and the top teams in Division B1 and B2.
Nomads came out of the box firing on all cylinders and managed to find a combination of players to hold off their biggest rivals, Alabang Eagles. The conditions suited the Nomads who had not been able to train together properly for the preceding two weeks due to the heavy rains and a waterlogged home pitch. Also, the Eagles were lacking a couple of their star players – Sam and Zack Martin – Sam due to injury and Zack as he was out of the country. Nonetheless, the Eagles fought hard and never let up the pressure, but the final score was 22-5. Later in the day Nomads played the MAAP 1 who had a lot of new young and inexperienced players, so Nomads won that one 34 – 0. As a result, Nomads claimed 2 wins and 2 bonus points for a full-house 10 points.

The Eagles were not to be out done and also beat the young MAAP 1 side 34 - 0 to get 5 points in the League table, having won one, lost one and claimed a bonus point for scoring more than 4 tries.
In Division B1, the Makati Chiefs, despite being also a bit short on players and training, are heading up the League Table with 9 points after beating both Alabang Ibon (10-0) and PAF 1 (22-5). Nomads Lizards are close behind with 7 points on the League Table after drawing (10-10) against the young and spirited Alabang Ibon and then beating the PAF 1 27-0 in the last game of the day.

The all-Filipino, PAF 1 team impressed everyone as they were playing in only their second day of full contact rugby. They had their debut a few weeks ago at the Fat Boy 10’s Tournament at their own home field in Clark Airbase and obviously learnt a lot from the experience. On Saturday they played really well, putting together play sequences where the ball went thro up to 10 pairs of hands – not easy in the slippy conditions. Lack of experience and a wet ball meant that they didn’t quite manage to capitalize on the advantage that they gained and – as always in 7’s – a little bit of luck helps a lot. Anyway, the PAF and MAAP were hosted to food and drinks by Randell Carmen of Alabang Eagles before they set out on the long trek back to Clark and Bataan respectively. And I am sure there would have been non-stop talk as they trundled up the Northern Expressway as to how they can get back in the game next week. After all they will have home ground advantage!

This was also the first week of the Women’s 7-A-Side League for Touch Rugby. MAAP brought their young lady cadets all the way from Bataan and Nomads brought 2 teams of ladies and a team of young boys. The teams all played each other and, surprisingly the boys beat the girls – but that was mainly due to the fact that they have one very fast 14 yr old Filipino player (Carl John Amisola) who can even outrun the adult males! So it’s no shame for the girls. It’s just a good thing that the boys are not officially playing in their league. In the women’s games, Nomads A won all their games and Nomads B beat the MAAP girls but lost to their sister team. On October 15th and 22nd the Alabang Eagles girls and another 6 or 7 junior teams will be playing so it will be fun to see who comes out on top in the end!