Rugby: Volcanoes give home crowd a treat, steamroll Singapore

The Philippine Volcanoes took care of business in the opening day of the HSBC Asian 5 Nations, defeating Singapore 37-20 on Sunday.   The Philippine forwards started strong, as Matt Saunders scored a try early in the fourth minute. The try, coupled with the conversion of Oliver Saunders, gave the Philippines a 7-0 lead at the onset of the game.   The Volcanoes didn't let up after that with Joe Matthews, Patrice Olivier and Oliver Saunders all scoring for the home team, good for a 24-6 halftime lead, as Singapore managed to salvage two penalty kicks to get on the board.   At the start of the second half, the Singaporeans tried to rally by scoring an early try two minutes into the resumption of play. But the Volcanoes remained aggressive, with Matthews countering with his own try in the fifth minute. Oliver Saunders also got going in the second half, scoring to put the Philippines up 32-13. 11 minutes in.   Singapore managed to score another try with a successful conversion to push their score to 20, but Volcanoes team captain Michael Letts scored anew four minutes before full time to end the game at 37-20.   "That's probably gone to the script. We knew they were gonna be strong in the forwards, I knew we would be strong out in the backs. We'd get them out wide there and that's pretty much how the game panned out," said Volcanoes head coach Expo Mejia, who banked on the stellar play of his veterans, especially the captain Letts.

  "Michael Letts had a very, very strong game. He shown that over the year, he's been in Japan playing professionally and that's paid off for us. He's come back a long stronger," he added.   The entire Volcanoes team couldn’t help but feed off the home crowd for extra energy.   "It's amazing, to be at home in front of all my cousins over in that corner, it just makes it that much more special," Letts shared.   Letts remains confident that the Volcanoes are capable of sustaining a string of strong performances.   "We started off really well and as long as we kept that front foot, the game was gonna be ours. On the last 10 to 15 [minutes], we sort of backed off a bit. We just gotta make sure we play that whole 80 mins. If we get that clean ball we got guys like Joey Matthews in the wing who just got some lighting speed. French-Filipino Patrice Olivier who has so much speed," said Letts.   The Volcanoes will play Chinese Taipei on Wednesday at the Rizal Memorial Stadium, their second of the three-game schedule and Coach Mejia assures that the Philippine team will be prepared.   "Chinese Taipei will play a faster game. They’ll definitely use their backs a little bit more so we have to be ready for that," added Mejia. – AMD, GMA News