I asked around for someone to write an article about this year’s Manila 10’s and no-one volunteered. Like, NO-ONE! It’s usually difficult to get people to write stuff anyway, but this subject had an incredible alcoholic haze surrounding it. People who are normally verbose and outspoken just went “Duuuuuh….”  Like, what ever happened had been erased from everybody’s memory banks - except that it left a huge pleasant afterglow that just made everyone want to do it all again next year. I guess I shouldn’t complain then. What we do know is that this year was GREAT….….. and that next will be even BIGGER and BETTER.

One thing I do know from this year is that SINGAPORE BARBARIANS won the Cup Competition. This and all the other results are on the Nomads Manila 10’s website at www.manila10s.com . So it must be true! They beat the Black Watch 17 -5 in a hard fought final. The Black Watch put up a good show and they never gave up. They are a British Army side composed mainly of Fijian nationals who have been recruited in the Armed Forces. They are just back from serving in Afghanistan  - so they know all about tough conditions! In the Plate Championship Kowloon beat the Taipei Baboons 45-17. Again a fairly convincing win – but then Kowloon is one of the top sides in Hong Kong. In the Bowl the HKFC Scorpions first team beat the Seoul Survivors 24-12. And finally, in the Shield, Bahrain beat the Tequila Mockingbirds by 14-5. So that’s the facts, ma’am just the facts.

The rest is mere conjecture and a figment of some ones VERY vivid imagination. It MUST be! After all, those things couldn’t really have happened ……… or could they?  

So what about the 2006 AMEC - CAPE EAST MANILA 10’s? It`s actually a week-long FESTIVAL of fun. We had The Handlebar Miss Manila 10’s Beauty Pageant on Friday 17th March, won by Rhea Mendoza of Quezon City. The Sinclair James Manila 10s Golf Day on Thursday 23 March at Intramuros and the HSBC Manila 10’s Lunch at the Hotel Philippine Plaza on Friday 24 March.

The actual games started on the morning of Saturday 25th March, bright and early at 8:30am. “Ouch, my head”. “Oh nooooo, play rugby? Now?”  And it went on ALL DAY till about 5pm. And then ALL DAY Sunday too…….! Despite the parties the night before Teams dragged themselves, muttering and grumbling, down to Nomads Sports Club in Merville Park Subdivision, Paranaque to participate in the sport that they love and came all this way to play. This year there was an all-time record of 32 teams from 17 countries, including United Kingdom, Japan, Hong Kong (5 teams), New Zealand, Macao, Australia, Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Taiwan, Bahrain, Mongolia (yes as in Outer Mongolia, Ghengis Khan and all that!) and, of course, the Philippines featuring a phenomenal 9 teams in all). And if you could check on the nationalities of all the players you would probably find most of the countries in the World are represented. So it’s a truly international event. And all these guys converge on Manila for just one thing and that is to try and win some “Silverware” in the Manila 10’s. Well I lied about that a bit really. Actually, they also come to drink a few of our world-famous San Miguel’s and enjoy the nightlife and the hospitality that this country is renowned for.

So how did all these teams play, knock each other out (literally and figuratively) so that some one emerged THE CHAMPION?  There were 32 teams in 8 POOLS of 4 TEAMS. Basically, on Saturday the teams in each POOL all play each other and the points scored (2 for a win, 1 for a draw and for a loss). These were accumulated to determine the final groupings of teams that go forward into the 4-tier knockout competition on the Sunday. There were separate competitions to win the Cup, Plate, Bowl and Shield, with the Cup winners being the overall Champions of the Manila 10’s. There was no easy draw in this year's Manila 10s.

On top of all those trophies we also had one for the Most promising Young Player – won by a young player from Cebu; one for the Best & Fairest Player, which went to the fly half for the Singapore Barbarians; plus a trophy for the Most Festive Team which was won by Tokyo Gaijiin.

 And on top of all the macho male rugby stuff we even had Ladies Rugby  - featuring the Nomads Bullettes and the University of the Philippines ladies. And they are ALL FILIPINAS  and ALL BEAUTIFUL too! But last and by no means  least we had Junior rugby for kids aged from 8 – 14. It was a really close game eventually won  1-0 by the Bahay Bata Clark Rotary Juniors just edging out the Nomads Juniors in the last minute. 

So…. EVERYONE HAD FUN AND THE BEST TEAMS WON! Or at least that what they will say. Though given all the external influencing factors that can affect the performance of any of the teams……..and especially all the cultural influences that we can bring to bear on the teams and individual players, who knows if it really was the best teams who won. Let’s face it. It wouldn’t be Manila if there weren’t a few “curve balls” out there ready to trap the unsuspecting and unwary neophytes visiting our LAND of SMILES.

“YOU KNOW IT MAKES SENSE”