The naked truth about the red-hot Philippine Volcanoes was their meteoric rise in Asian rugby went unnoticed back home until a nude picture stunt stirred controversy.
While boxing champion Manny Pacquiao dominates the psyche of sports-loving Filipinos and basketball is followed passionately, few know about rugby or even the fact the country has one of the most successful teams on the Asian scene.
To address this perceived slight, the men's national rugby team, mainly made up of 'heritage-Filipinos' or from mixed marriages, posed for an underwear company in skimpy briefs to raise awareness in a public hooked on the dunks of the Philippine Basketball Association and the jabs of southpaw Pacquiao.
Among the players who bravely accepted the brief to pose almost naked with just a rugby ball in hand, was sevens captain Jake Letts, a Filipino-Australian.
The underwear campaign, run on huge billboards across the country, was a success in that it created a huge controversy. Many in the Catholic country were incensed at the sexual connotations of the advertisements. They railed at the indecency of the almost-naked young men showing off their abs and pecs.
The conservatives won the day and the billboards were taken down. But thanks to social networking sites, the underwear ads proved a hit and today more people in the Philippines are aware of a game called rugby.
But just to prove the national team is not all about looks, Letts and company put on a good show in their Hong Kong Sevens debut yesterday, despite losing 35-5 to the highly rated Canadians.