Philippine Volcanoes, the national rugby team of the Philippines, is currently competing in Borneo 7s, the second leg of the HSBC Asian Sevens Series, being held in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.

Before qualifying for the finals this Sunday, the team has to face the following teams still: Japan at 11:05am (Final Score: Final score: Phl 17- Jpn 38), Kazahkstan at 2:00pm (Final score: Phl 24 - Kaz 19) and UAE (Fiinal score: PHL 22 - UAE 14) at 5:00pm, today, September 24, 201.

Update 1: Philippines defeated Malaysia, 28 - 14 in the Quaterfinals. The team will be facing China at 1:24 p.m. today for the Semi-finals. Philippine Volcanoes is now assured of a spot in the Top 4, which was their goal.

Update 2:  The Philippine Volcanoes won against China, 19-14. The team is now off to the Finals!

Update 3: Volcanoes lost to Japan, bagging silver. 

The Philippine Volcanoes have been preparing all week in Manila and are feeling very confident about performing well in Borneo 7s. Jake Letts, the team captain, is reportedly very upbeat about the tournament and has challenged the team to play to their maximum potential to achieve their goal of a top four finish at the tournament.

Some positive changes have been made to the squad before they head to Malaysia for the tournament. Four top-level Filipino players from Australia have been recruited to play for the team.

“These players will definitely help in breaking into the top four teams in Borneo and they are all playing top level Rugby in Australia. To win at this level you need 12 strong players and the new recruits will give the Philippines the much needed impact off the bench to compete against the best teams in Asia,” Coach Matt Cullen explained.

The Borneo 7s is the last major tournament for the Philippine Volcanoes Men's team in 2011 and they have had another successful year by winning five out of eight International matches.

Meanwhile, some of the members of the Philippine Volcanoes have been very active lately on Twitter. They have been conversing with fans and updating them with the group's activities. If you wanna tweet out your support, you can follow their accounts below:

Andrew Wolff - @IamAndrewWolff
Chris Everingham - @EveringhamChris
Eric Tai - @eric_tai
Harry Morris - @HarryMorris1
Justine Coveney - @Justin_Coveney
Kenneth Stern - @kennethstern
Oliver Saunders - @oliverjsaunders

Best of luck, guys!

Philippine Volcanoes, the Philippine National Rugby Team, became the hottest topics among netizens as well as offline recently after the traffic-stopping billboards of its members wearing nothing but their underwear were taken down after requests from public officials.

Prior to this, Philippine Volcanoes' existence is relatively unknown to some but they actually have been performing well in the international Rugby scene. The team brought home gold medals in 2005 and silver medals in 2007 from the South East Asian Games. For 3 years (from 2008-2010), the Volcanoes Men's 15 team were the champions in the Asian 5 National. They are also the 2009 and 2010 gold medalists at the Asian Junior Rugby Division 2 (Under 20's).

Recently, the group posed for local clothing brand Bench to promote their sports and raise funds for the team - the billboard ads were the outcome of it. Check out below behind-the-scenes footage of the Philippine Volcanoes' photo-shoot for Bench:





Below are the names of the Philippine Volcanoes members:

Phil Abraham
Joven Clarke 
Justin Coveney
Austin Dacanay
Michael de Guzman
Michael Duhig
Kit Guerra
Chris Hitch
Gareth Holgate
Jake Letts 
Michael Letts
Luke Matthews 
Patrice Olivier
Tyler Perez 
Nick Perry Nick Pineda
James Price
Matt Saunders
Oliver Saunders
Ned Stephenson 
Josh Sutcliffe
Richard Taylor
Jaime Urquijo
Rafael Zappia
Rupert Zappia

Also check out the following photos of some of Philippine Volcanoes members from Bench and Facebook: