PNG students start rugby league club in the Philippines

IN August 2013, Papua New Guinea students studying in colleges and universities in Batangas, Philippines, created the Batangueno Mandirigmas (Batangas Warriors) rugby league team. 

They were keen to play in the Philippines National Rugby League Zambales 9s tournament but exams and distance prevented them from competing that year.

It took another year before the Mandirigmas could play and their chance finally came on Sept 16, 2014, at the Adventist University of the Philippines during the PNG Independence anniversary celebrations.

They made their second appearance at the tournament this year.

With the majority of foreign students attending the University of Batangas (UB) coming from PNG, third year civil engineering student, Ismile Kepu, who is the current president of International Student Organisation at UB, discovered that it was difficult getting sponsors for the Mandirigmas. 

Few people in the Philippines know that the game of rugby league even exists.

Kepu wrote to the University president, Dr Hernando Perez, asking permission to introduce rugby league into the university’s official sports programme. 

The president approved the request to sponsor the team and bought the team new club jerseys.

“I thank Perez and his vice-presidents for making it possible for us to introduce rugby league in Batangas,” Kepu said. 

Unlike the 2013 Batangueno Mandirigmas league team which was made up of students from colleges and universities in the province, UB Toro is an exclusive University of Batangas team.

On Nov 27, the team competed in the annual University of Batangas sports parade day, introducing the new sport to the school and the province of Batangas.

“We plan to teach the Filipinos rugby league so that after we have graduated and returned to PNG, they will continue from where we’ve left off,” Kepu said. 

Toro are preparing for next year’s PNRL season and are looking forward to play a trial match against the Manila Recto Royals — another PNG-students’ team.

Source: Rugby League Planet