The following article about Asia Rugby’s Exco Member and Women’s Rugby Chairperson, Ada Milby, is a translation of an article which first appeared in the Japanese publication, “Rugby Magazine”.
The article was written and kindly summited to Asia Rugby, by Asia Rugby President Mr. Koji Tokumasu
Ada Milby is the Chairperson for Women’s Rugby in Asia and the Secretary General for Philippine Rugby Football Union. She is passionate about getting girls and women into Rugby from a gender equity stance because of the social development and leadership benefits garnered from sports.
She graduated from Devry University in Business Management, Klemmer & Associates in Leadership, and travels throughout Asia as a World Rugby Educator.
Ada has a very interesting playing experience. She grew up as a competitive figure skater idolizing athletes like Kristi Yamaguchi and Michelle Kwan. She didn’t start playing rugby until her first year of college and didn’t realize that the skill of being able to fall on hard slates of ice would be a good cross-over skill to being able to brace yourself for a tackle. The main difference being that in skating, you are only falling of your own accord, and in Rugby, you are putting yourself on the line for a teammate; for a bigger purpose.
Believing in this purpose is what has driven her rugby involvement from captaining both the Philippine Women’s 15s and 7s teams, introducing Rugby into all girls schools, becoming the Secretary General for PRFU and eventually sitting on the Executive Committee for Asia Rugby.
“I decided to play rugby in college because I played American football in high school on the boys team and I found the environment very unwelcoming. I had a separate change room and many of the boys were quite mean to me, perhaps because they felt threatened by a girl competing for one of their positions. When I was on campus, I passed by a booth of girls recruiting for rugby. And I thought, it can’t be that much different – and I get to play on a girls team which was a bonus!” Ada recalls from her college days.
Women’s Rugby In Asia
“My dream for women’s rugby is that when people think of the sport, they think of the sport for both boys and girls, men and women. Hitting a target of 50% girls/women across all spectrums of the sport would really show the sporting world that Rugby is truly a sport for all” says Ada.
Ada is a social media manager for multiple brands in the Philippines. When she was the captain of Philippines Women’s team, she participated in Southeast Asia Games in Singapore just three month after her youngest daughter Tala was born. When she’s not playing rugby, she loves to travel and spend time with her two young daughters.
“My main concerns/challenges for Women’s Rugby is two fold: the first one is perceived barriers to entry for girls. Many people within Asia see Rugby as a boys/men sport. Additionally, girls typically have a shorter playing lifespan due to marriages, pregnancy and social/family pressure to focus on family rather than sport” Ada points out challenges which Women’s rugby faces in Asia.
“My other concern is that finding sponsorships to support women’s competitions is more difficult resulting in less competition support for teams”.
Asia’s population is estimated at around 4.44 Billion people. With a world population of roughly 7.34 Billion, Asia makes up more than 50% of the world’s population making it a focal point of growth for World Rugby, especially with the upcoming 2019 Rugby World Cup and 2020 Olympics both being hosted in Japan. Currently, Asia has tournaments for u17s, u20s, 15s, and 7s. There are almost 300 clubs with women’s teams, and more than 120,000 newly registered women and girl players in the first half of 2017.
Impact Beyond 2019
“Asia Rugby has a target of introducing the sport to 1million new players by 2019 with 40% of that target being girls. With just under two years to go, we will need the support of all the unions working towards this initiative.”
Program initiatives like JRFU’s Scrum Project and Asia Rugby’s partner project Pass It Back with Child Fund are all great ways to 
continue promoting the game.
Grassroots programs are always the fundamental starting point for creating a sustainable rugby pathway for future players, coaches, match officials, and general supporters of the Game.
Considering this is the first time that a Rugby World Cup and Olympics (inclusive of Rugby7s) will be hosted in Asia, we have a relatively short time to use this momentum to build up and prepare for these monumental events and build up the women’s rugby program for the next 20 years.
Considering this is the first time that a Rugby World Cup and Olympics (inclusive of Rugby7s) will be hosted in Asia, we have a relatively short time to use this momentum to build up and prepare for these monumental events and build up the women’s rugby program for the next 20 years.
Finally, Ada summarizes her passion as ,” Please join us as we build up a strong Asia Rugby to create role models for girls and boys now and in the future.”
(the Main photo was taken at the airport before departing for South East Games in Singapore in 2015 with a three month old daughter Tala and 4 years old Lona)
