Philippine Fullback Andrea Engelbrecht kicking off
to keep the Iran team on their side

The Philippine National U/20’s team remained undefeated after beating the Iranian National U/20s team. Iran had defeated Pakistan in their first round match and obviously had a height and weight advantage over the smaller, more skilled Philippine Team.

The game proved to be a dynamic battle between the two top teams of the U/20s tournament and it was the Philippines team that drew first blood when Ben Saunders made an attaching raid on the Iran line and delivered a perfectly timed pass to Kenny Dizon who stormed onto the ball and carried two defenders over the line to score his first ever try for the Philippines.

The game remained in balance for the next twenty minutes with the Philippine forwards taking on their larger opponents but unfortunately conceded several penalties whilst driving into the rucks and mauls. This allowed the Iranian to convert a penalty and the half time score was 5-3.

Ned Stephenson and Kimi Hilis working together
to score another try against Iran.

The Philippines came out firing in the second half and it was Kim Hilis who finished off an electric backline move to score untouched in the corner. This early try set the platform for the Philippines to maintain the game plan to spin the ball wide and run the larger Iranian team around the park. The Philippines utilized their tactical kicking game through Andrew Farrar , Ben Saunders and Andrea Engelbrecht to pin the Iran team in their own half. It was only a matter of time before the Iranian team made several mistakes to score another try on the end of a perfectly timed, long line out throw by Alex Buchel who was able to deliver the ball 20m to the Captain , Ben Saunders who ran from fly half to catch the ball on the full and evaded the first line of defense , stepping the fullback to score the try of the tournament under the posts.

Philippine Half back Andrew Farrar off to pass the ball as the Philippines win another scrum against their Goliath opponents

National team coaches Matt Cullen and Grant Rice awarded the Man of the Match to the Philippines hooker, Alex Buchel who consistently led the Philippines forward pack against a much larger Iranian team.

Philippine Hooker Alex Buchel side stepping through Iran's defense

The Philippines will now meet Pakistan who were ranked second in the division at Nomads, the Philippines are looking to make a clear sweep of the Asian Under 20’s with a win over Pakistan.