Volcanoes stun Sri Lankans, enter final

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Volcanoes gained a crack at back-to-back titles in the Asia Rugby Championship Division I after pulling the rug from under favored Sri Lanka, 39-22, in the Cup semifinal Wednesday at Taipei Municipal Stadium.

Robert Fogerty struck with two tries while Justin Coveney, Ned Stephenson and Tim Berry broke through the defense once and Daniel Matthews had four conversions and two penalties as 53rd-ranked Phl completed the upset over the world No. 43 Tuskers.

The Volcanoes will face Singapore in a rematch of the 2018 finale tomorrow. The Singaporeans followed the Filipinos to the gold-medal match by beating host Chinese-Taipei in their side of the semis, 18-13.

Phl faced an 8-10 deficit early on but wrested control heading to the break with scrum half Berry darting over the try line at the stroke of halftime and Matthews adding the extra points for a 15-10 upper hand.

Picking up from where they left off in the first half, the Volcanoes scored 16 unanswered points after the break with Fogerty delivering his second try and Coveney and Stephenson getting their firsts. Each time, Matthews added the extra points, resulting in a 36-10 cushion for Philippines.

Sri Lanka squeezed in two late tries but Phl skipper Matthews cashed on his penalty to seal it.

“Really proud of the team. The forwards especially dug deep and were clinical which allowed the backs to get clean ball and play attacking rugby. It was a real team effort,” said Matthews, who accounted for a team-high 14 for Philippines.

“Credit to Sri Lanka who can score tries from anywhere, we just needed to hold out until the final whistle. The team showed a lot of maturity and composure to finish the game as winners,” he added.