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Outtakes from my column (ran out of space).

In rugby the team in possession of the ball moves it towards the opponent’s goal line by kicking it. They can pass it with their hands but never forwards, only sideways (if the ball is moving slightly backwards). To stop the ball carrier, the opposing team tackles him.

Points are scored by kicking the ball on the ground over the goal’s crossbar (3 points), or by bodily carrying the ball over the goal line and planting it on the ground (a ‘try’, 5 points). After a successful try, the attacking team gets a free kick at the goal. If it goes in, it’s a ‘conversion’ (2 points).

Photo: The Asian Division 2 championship match in New Delhi in June. The Philippines beat Thailand and India to win promotion to Division 1 in 2011. Photo by Nigel Saunders.

This is a scrum. After a minor rules violation, the eight forwards on each team bind together in three rows and interlock heads. The opposing pack approaches and everybody crouches. Then the two packs engage and push each other as hard they can. The ball is thrown into the gap between the two front rows, whereupon the two guys in the middle of the front row try to hook the ball backwards with their feet. The ball is kicked backwards, number 9 (the ‘scrum-half’) picks it up, and the ball is in play. Photo by Nigel Saunders.

Half-Pinoy, Half-Aussie, All Sports, All The Time in Emotional Report, today in the Star.

The Rugby World Cup is next year. Let’s go to New Zealand!

Yes, we support causes and teams just because we believe in them and we don’t expect them to know we exist much less acknowledge the energy we’ve expended. That makes hearing from the people who represent these causes and teams so much more gratifying. Winning a rugby championship final: cool. Being a champion and having good manners: hot.

Ronald Fong who’s back in New York where he’s taking his master’s at Columbia, posted a comment to thank all of us for rooting for the team.

Ronald Fong, photo by J. Sutcliffe

Michael Letts who lives in Sydney emailed his thanks

Michael Letts

and so did his brother Jake Letts, currently in hard study mode because he’s taking his master’s at the University of Technology in Sydney and has to catch up on the two weeks of school he just lost.

Jake Letts, photo by N. Saunders

Oliver Saunders telephoned from Sydney to say Thank you and cheers to everyone who followed the Philippine team’s excellent adventure in India.

Oliver and his mom Marilou Saunders at the Taj Mahal. Everybody: Awww. Photo by N. Saunders

Austin Dacanay a.k.a. Lolo Austy because he’s the oldest member of the team, is back in Texas but left his Thanks in the comments section.

Austin Dacanay, photo by N. Saunders

Marunong mag-Tagalog si Lolo Austy. Chikahin ninyo siya.

So this post is about two things we don’t usually put in the same sentence: rugby and etiquette. I think we’ll stop here because it can get cumbersome. (Thank you for saying thank you for saying thank you for saying thank you endless ellipses.)

We may be new to rugby, but we figure that anyone who trains as hard as he can, then goes out there to play for our country, getting bruised and battered for little more than a Thank you, deserves our enthusiasm. Thank you, readers, for being enthusiastic.

Philippine Volcanoes Explode in Asian Rugby
Yes, we have a national rugby team, and they are on a three-year winning streak.
by Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala
with Jessica Zafra (I wrote the parts with ‘destroy’, ‘seize’, and the glue puns.)
Front page of the Philippine Star today.

* * * * *

Jeffrey just texted that I forgot to write the final score in the match with India. I? It’s not my byline. Hahahaha.

The Philippine team in action against India at the A5N Division 2 championship in New Delhi. Photos by the Flying Saunders Brothers’ dad.

Philippines v India rugby final, Live(ish)

Via Twitter, here. Via the PRFU Facebook page, here.

* * * *

Via the traveling media bureau, Delhi, India to Columbus, Ohio to Manila.

Columbus (CLB): Philippines 3, India 0. Penalty kick.
Manila (MNL): Great, I thought my relay would be distraught. (Cal def Harvard 42-0 in the US collegiate sevens. Then Harvard lost all its other matches. Bageled.)
CLB: Never distraught. Hope springs eternal!

CLB: India 7, Phils 3
MNL: At Roland Garros, Schiavone leads Stosur 6-4, 2-4.
CLB: Phils 9, India 7
MNL: All Oliver Saunders points, should we clone him?
CLB: Phils 12, India 7. Do you have a source or do you want me to relay info?
MNL: (Ang taray ng correspondent.) No, please continue!
CLB: Phils 15, India 7
MNL: In Paris, the second set of the women’s final goes into a tiebreak.
CLB: Phils 22, India 7. Halftime.
MNL: And Francesca Schiavone wins the French Open ladies singles!

Second half.
CLB: Philippines 27, India 7. . .Pulling ahead!
MNL: Dammit they ARE good. Now I have to read the rulebook.
CLB: Hahaha looks like we have a winning team!

CLB: Phils 34, India 7

Note that this is the Indian team that destroyed China 90-something-nil. And they’re playing at home. In 40-degree weather.

CLB: Phils 34, India 12

Manila, 5 June 2010, 2349 hrs. The Philippines is the Asian 5 Nations Division 2 Champion!

We’ve won! Yes, first person plural!

Now to feed the cats. Do repost this announcement in your blogs and Facebook pages. Thank you!

We requested photographs of the national rugby team players. Unfortunately the photos are unlabeled.

So you’ve got homework. Please go to this gallery, in which individual players are identified, and using the face recognition software in your head, compare them with these faces. Then identify the guys in each of these photographs. Thank you!

Bonus: The sender of the Best Caption gets a copy of A Sportsman’s Notebook by Ivan Turgenev a signed copy of The Flip Reader (The greatest hits anthology from Flip: The Official Guide to World Domination).

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From the camera of Josh Sutcliffe, who is in some of these photos but we don’t know which.

The A5N Division 2 Championship final between the Philippines and India will be played tonight at 1930 New Delhi time, 2200 in Manila.

Photo from PRFU’s Facebook page

Christopher Hitch is a carpenter in Sydney, Australia, where Michael Letts works as a mortgage broker. Austin Dacanay is a chiropractor in Texas, USA. Every year in May they fly to Manila, at their own expense and using their hoarded vacation time, to play rugby for the Philippines.

They are joined by two dozen young men from Brisbane, Wales, North Carolina, Modena, the British Armed Services, Boston and many other places. Most of them are very large, and have names like Saunders, Morris, Zappia, Holgate and Sutcliffe. Readers might recognize longtime team member Andrew Wolff the model slash actor; this year’s recruits include Jaime Urquijo Zobel, a new University of Notre Dame graduate headed for a Wall Street firm.

Meet the Philippine Men’s Rugby 15’s National Team now competing in the Asian 5 Nations Division 2 Championships in New Delhi, India.

Your first question is: We have a Philippine national rugby team? Your second question is: Where are the Filipinos?

Introducing the New, 100 Percent Filipino Heritage National Men’s Rugby Team, in Emotional Weather Report, today in the Star.