Volcanoes reach extinction in Asian Rugby Sevens Series

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Volcanoes' sevens team dropped a 10-19 setback to Kazakhstan in the Bowl finals of the Malaysia Sevens Sunday, ending a disappointing campaign in the second leg of the Asian Rugby Sevens Series at Stadium MBPJ in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.

The Volcanoes lost both their matches in Pool A to Thailand, 7-14, and Hong Kong, 0-31, to bomb out of contention for the Cup and find themselves relegated to the Bowl competition.

The Pinoys broke through with a 19-5 victory over Bowl semis rival Chinese Taipei on tries by Andrew Wolff, Sean Lynch and Timothy Bweheni and two conversions by Gaz Holgate to advance against Kazakhstan, 34-7 winner over United Arab Emirates.

Phl actually drew first blood with Justin Coveney scoring a try for an early 5-0 lead but the Kazakhs turned it around and emerged victorious despite a man disadvantage late in the match.

Abdrakhman Nazhibayev's try levelled the count at 5-all then the Kazakhs seized control going to the halftime on a run by Ivan Olkhovsky, 12-5.

Coveney scored once more after the restart as the Philippines went to within 12-10. Kazakhstan's Nazhibayev was sent to the sin bin for interfering with a ruck, but the Volcanoes failed to exploit and allowed Stanislav Prilipko to race through and score for a 19-10 margin.

"We are obviously not satisfied with our performance in KL but we will accept it, learn from it and build on it. We have no excuses but what we do have is the ability to bounce back," Volcanoes 7s skipper Jake Letts said.

The Volcanoes 7s will set their sights on the 17th Asian Games in Incheon Korea next, hoping by then they have adjusted better to the new system of coach Geoff Alley.

"The boys have been challenged with this new system and have embraced it. While we always go out to win every game, the big picture was Asian Games and beyond with a core group of players with raised fitness levels, raised skill levels and a belief in the future. We have set the ball in motion to become the powerful force in Asian rugby," Alley said.