"It's a tremendous honor to be selected to play in the Philippines' very first international rugby test match,” comments Luraschi. “Not only am I extremely excited about meeting the other players, but I am just as excited about visiting the Philippines.”

American-born Luraschi, who’s Filipino/Italian, will be visiting the Philippines for the first time. He popped up on the national team’s radar screen after a Filipino rugger read an interview with Luraschi on the Lions website, then passed the info on to the Philippine Rugby Union. The union contacted members of the U.S. rugby community who were familiar with Luraschi’s skills, and he got the call.

This marks the third time a Lion has made a national team. Brendan Reidy from the early ‘90s Lions played dozens of matches at hooker for Western Samoa, including the ’95 and ’99 World Cups, and loose forward Luis Schroeder was capped several times for Liechtenstein. Jess Houser, meanwhile, has represented the Eagle ‘A’ squad.