Former US nat'l team coach to boost Volcanoes in Borneo Sevens

The Philippine Volcanoes will have former US National Sevens Rugby Team head coach Al Caravelli at the helm as they face a tough test this weekend—being  grouped in Pool A along with South Korea and Singapore—at the 2012 Borneo Sevens Championship in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Caravelli took over from Expo Mejia, who will remain with the team as manager and assistant coach. On Saturday, the Volcanoes play Singapore first at 1:40 p.m. and just a few hours later at 5:40pm, they go up against South Korea. The Philippines will have extra motivation for landing the top spot on Saturday, so they can face a lighter assignment in the knockout stage.   A first place finish in the first round will set up a meeting with the second placer from Pool C, which will either be Chinese Taipei or Sri Lanka, two teams the Volcanoes disposed of earlier this year at the Asian 5 Nations held in Manila. Getting the second spot in Pool A will lead to the Volcanoes facing the reigning Asian Sevens Series and Borneo Sevens champion Japan in the knockout stage. The Philippines, tied for the third seed in the tournament with South Korea and China, shares the problem of being grouped with another highly-ranked team with South Korea, as the rest of the top seeds in the other three pools face relatively lighter opponents. In Pool B, Hong Kong (2nd) will play Malaysia (6th) and United Arab Emirates (9th), while Japan (1st) is in Pool C with Chinese Taipei (7th) and Sri Lanka (11th). Pool D will have China, Kazakhstan (Tied 7th) and Thailand (10th). — ELR, GMA News