MANILA, Philippines — While a gold medal finish remains the ultimate goal, the Philippine women’s rugby team has set a more realistic target – a podium finish in the 30th Southeast Asian Games later this year.
Set to play in its third SEA Games, the surging Lady Volcanoes are pulling out all the stops to reach greater heights in the rugby sevens event, especially with a frenetic homecrowd expected at the Clark Parade Grounds for the Nov. 30 to Dec. 11 SEA Games.
“Fourth place is where we were at last time so we would definitely want a higher finish,” said the former Volcano-turned-mentor Chris Everingham in yesterday’s PSA Forum at the Amelie Hotel in Manila.
The Philippine women’s rugby sevens debuted with a bronze medal in 2015 SEA Games in Singapore but settled for a fourth place finish two years later in Malaysia.
That finish kept the Lady Volcanoes at fourth place in the Southeast Asian women’s rugby sevens rankings behind Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.
This time, three major tournaments before the SEAG are in line for the Lady Volcanoes in a bid to jump a notch higher and cement their status as the next rugby sevens superpower in the region.
“It’s hard to predict a gold medal finish. But of course, that remains the ultimate mission. Our showing still depends on our preparation. It depends on where we will be leading to the Games. And right now, we’re yet to determine that with this series of tournaments,” added Lady Volcanoes general manager Jake Letts in the weekly forum backed by Pagcor, San Miguel Corp., Amelie Hotel and Braska Restaurant.
The first in the series of build-up tourneys for the Philippine women’s rugby sevens team is the Asia Rugby Women’s Trophy Series slated Aug. 10-11 in Jakarta, where the national squad will be out to replicate or surpass its silver medal finish last year.
Due to the runner-up finish in 2018, the Philippines is seeded second behind champion top-seeded South Korea in this 10-team tournament.