{"id":2448,"date":"2013-03-07T15:32:14","date_gmt":"2013-03-07T15:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=2448"},"modified":"2013-03-07T15:32:14","modified_gmt":"2013-03-07T15:32:14","slug":"rain-or-shine-the-tamaraws-plowed-away-by-benjie-de-ubago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=2448","title":{"rendered":"Rain or shine, the Tamaraws plowed away by Benjie de Ubago"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
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Come sleet, wind and high waters, nothing was going to stop the PAL Tamaraws from getting into the field at Cabramatta last Saturday, 2 February 2013 for the Cabramatta International 9s.<\/p>\n

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The heavens may have been pouring buckets, but the weather did not in any way dampen the spirits of the PAL Tamaraws.\u00a0 The boys roughed it up through nine games in the rain and mud, made it to the finals but were one step short of the cup.\u00a0 However, their overall performance now ranks the Philippines number 4 in Rugby League International.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a year since the boys made their debut on Cabramatta greens and they have tripled in number. This year, three teams \u2013 the red \u2013 white \u2013 blue \u2014 were fielded to show the might and force of the Philippines. All the players were of Filipino heritage. Also evident were the supporters on the sidelines \u2014 complete with volunteer Filipino and Aussie Medicos in bright yellow shirts. They tended to the players, massaged them and strapped them back in colourful tapes as good as new.<\/p>\n

Three tents were pitched and colour coordinated too in the red, white and blue. And it was bustling with excitement, the place where the weary players bruised, battered, at times even trickling with blood came to be mended, grabbed a bite or drink, caught their breaths before rushing on to their next battle. Here too, huddled together and keeping warm were the supporters, families and the better halves who bundled cozily their children who waited to catch hugs from their daddies between matches.<\/p>\n

Consul General Anne Jalando-on Louis<\/strong>, along with Consul Marford Angeles<\/strong> and Cultural Officer Rachel Calisin<\/strong> braved the weather to wish the teams luck. \u201cCongratulations to the Tamaraws and I hope you continue on\u201d said Consul General Louis. She also commended families and supporters for giving their time, energy and resources to building the teams proudly representing the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Sponsors, Mr. Arnul Pan<\/strong> of Philippine Air Lines and Atoy <\/strong>and Tess Sayas<\/strong> of Zignal Travels were also on hand to cheer the boys on.\u00a0 \u201cWe will keep doing this in the years to come,\u201d assured Mr. Pan as the boys gave him a rousing cheer. Mr. Sayas in his dual role as President of the Philippine Community Council of NSW (PCC-NSW) also expressed the council\u2019s support for the group along with PCC director, Solina Lapalma.\u00a0 Andrew Everingham<\/strong> who plays for the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the National Rugby League was also present to give his support to the teams.<\/p>\n

Filipino culture was visible as when the New Zealand boys took the Consul General\u2019s hand to do the traditional \u201cmano\u201d (putting the elder\u2019s hand on their forehead as a sign of respect.)<\/p>\n

A new sense of brotherhood prevailed; Filipino patriotism had been awakened and was flying high as evidenced by the boys\u2019 facebook comments which were simply oozing with pride for the Philippines.<\/p>\n

\u201cProud to be a Filo\u201d was the common thread. \u201cThanks for giving us the opportunity to represent our heritage. Couldn\u2019t be prouder to be wearing the colours of our heritage,\u201d said Fred Arquiza<\/strong>. \u201cI had a blast meeting everyone and playing the game I love with my new found Pinoy brothers. Putting on that jersey was one of the highlights of my life.\u201d said Micah Hines. From Jason Bedford before the game: \u201cGame Day!\u00a0 Team Philippines Alive and in full effect!\u00a0 It\u2019s time to represent my mum\u2019s homeland, along with my brother and 44 other Pinoy brothers.\u201d\u00a0 And after the game Bedford said: \u201cIt\u2019s like sending family back home!\u00a0 Gonna miss you brothers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team Captain Luke Srama<\/strong> summed it up: \u201cThere are a lot of people that we need to say thanks for the weekend.\u00a0 To Clayton, Mark, Rick, Tom, Erick, all the coaches, the sponsors \u2013 especially PAL and Zignal \u2013 the Philippine Consulate \u2014 our families and friends. We\u2019re all part of Philippines Rugby League and I still can’t believe how much we have grown in just a year. Everyone\u2019s hard work off the field too, gave us all an opportunity to play international Rugby League and we\u2019re so proud to be wearing the Tamaraws jersey for the Philippines. Thanks to everyone!\u201d<\/p>\n

Nelson Mandela said it best:\u00a0 ‘Sport has the power to unite people in a way that little else can. Sport can create hope where there was only once despair. It breaks down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all kinds of discrimination. Sport speaks to people in a language they can understand.’<\/p>\n

To support the team follow them on their website \u2013 www.pnrlf.com ?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Come sleet, wind and high waters, nothing was going to stop the PAL Tamaraws from getting into the field at Cabramatta last Saturday, 2 February 2013 for the Cabramatta International 9s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}