INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines continues its quest for international rugby recognition when it sees action in the Asian Five Nations Rugby Series Division III Tournament at the Nomads field in Merville, Parañaque.

Powered by overseas-based standouts with Filipino roots who helped the country bag the gold in the 2005 Manila Southeast Asian Games and the silver in the Thailand edition two years ago, the RP team is favored against Iran in the semifinals at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

Guam and Indonesia meet for the first finals berth at 1 p.m. The championship match is scheduled at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Carrying the monicker “Volcanoes,” the Filipinos, who toughened up by undergoing a five-day camp in Los Baños, Laguna, recently, are hard-pressed to rule the tournament, which stakes a berth for promotion to Division II, where teams like China, Malaysia, India and Pakistan belong.

“This is a great opportunity to put the Philippines on the international rugby map,” Leslie Stokes, a member of the Philippine Rugby Football Union board of directors, told the Inquirer.

“We see the hosting of the tournament as a way to attract more interest in the sport so that we would have more pure Filipinos in the national team in the future.”

Sydney-based Michael Letts, one of 12 Filipino-Australians in the squad, and Fil-British Andrew Wolff see Guam as the biggest threat to their championship ambitions.

“We are confident because the team has been together for quite some time,” said Letts. “Some of the Filipino-Australians are in great shape because we have been playing competitively in Sydney.”

The Volcanoes, coached by Matt Cullen, have won their last three meetings against Guam, including one last year in the A5N Regional rugby tournament in Dededo, Guam.