North American Branch of PRFU Breaks Ground

The newly-formed North American Branch of the PRFU, headed by national team players Clay Luraschi (U.S.), Austin Dacanay (U.S.) and Jeff Betinol (Canada), made its debut this week at the prestigious New York Sevens Tournament.

Entered as the Philippine Barbarians in the Premiere Division, 11 players including four Philippine National Team players and two prospective Philippine players braved the 40 degree weather and strapped it on against top level sevens teams from the U.K., Canada and the USA.

“The idea behind this program is to let people in this part of the world know that yes, we are playing rugby in the Philippines and to create visibility of the PRFU among the 5 million Filipinos living in North America”, said Dacanay.

Although no silverware was taken home, the goal of recruiting prospective national team players and bringing visibility to the PRFU in North America had very positive results.

“If we can add one to two players a year to the Volcanoes player pool and get a substantial sponsorship, I would consider that a major success. I saw what we were doing over in Australia last year and I was so impressed that I wanted to get that started here”, Luraschi added.

In addition, the visibility PRFU / NA this past weekend attracted a handful of female Filipino players that were thrilled that a Philippine Women’s National Side is in the works.

For more info, please contact Clay Luraschi (prfuna@gmail.com)

Standing (L-R)
Clay Luraschi (Phil Nat’l Team), Kit Guerra (Phil Nat’l Team), Johnny Chia (Village Lions RFC via New Zealand), Austin Dacanay (Phil Nat’l Team), Kimani Davis (VLRFC via US), Adil Manari (VLRFC via Morocco)

Kneeling (L-R)
*Kenneth Stern (USA Nat’l Team U20), Roderegus Cesar (USA Nat’l Team 7s Pool), Phil Pratte (Phil Nat’l Team), Cheung Kan (Greece Nat’l Team Prospect), *Vince Petisme (Eastside RFC via Seattle)

*Player is of Filipino Heritage