The Philippine women’s rugby sevens team flies to Jakarta today to shoot for the gold in the 2019 Asia Rugby Women’s Trophy Series.
“This is a preparation tournament for the SEA Games,” said Volcanoes’ team manager Jake Letts during Tuesday’s Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum at Amelie Hotel-Manila.
The Philippine team, backed by First Pacific, MVP Sports Foundation and Philippine Sports Commission, is out to surpass its silver-medal finish last year.
“In 2018, our girls played some very good rugby sevens. This year, we are looking to replicate that performance and go one step further,” said coach Chris Everingham.
The team trained hard for eight weeks and did everything they could, including video analysis of their opponents, looking at their strengths and weaknesses.
The Philippines is bracketed in Pool A with Guam, Indonesia, Brunei and Chinese Taipei. In Pool B are top seed South Korea, India, Laos, Bangladesh and Qatar.
Joining Letts and Everingham in the forum presented by San Miguel Corporation, Braska Restaurant, Amelie Hotel-Manila and Pagcor were players Rassiel Sales, Lily Smythe, Happy Denuyo and Maia Sobejana.
They will make up the core of the team that will vie in the SEA Games in Clark.
“Whatever we’re doing is geared toward the SEA Games,” said Everingham of the squad that will try to surpass the bronze medal finish in 2015 in Singapore.
