2015 was a momentous year for the ‘game they play in heaven’. The sport’s showpiece tournament – the Rugby World Cup – was seen as the most successful and most competitive edition of the tournament so far.
Anyone who followed the World Cup, hardcore followers and neutrals alike, would never forget that moment when Japan’s Karne Hesketh crossed the try line in the dying minutes to secure a hard-fought 34-32 victory over the Springboks.
Japan then went on to become the first team that failed to qualify for the quarter-finals despite winning three games.
This impressive display comes at a time as Japan is set to host the World Cup in 2019. This is not only a first for the country but also for Asia as a whole. However, with great power comes great responsibility.
One of the challenges is creating a positive impact on a continent that covers 60 per cent of the world’s population but only less than 10 per cent of the global rugby-playing community.
Thus, it is a sleeping giant and a potential market for the sport. One way to do so is providing valuable skills and life-changing mechanisms for a region still rifled by poverty and inequality.
Because of this, there is a need for initiatives to build this lasting legacy. One is a Sport for Development program designed by the Australian NGO ChildFund called ‘Pass It Back’. This purpose of this project, in the own words of Chris Mastaglio, a Country Director for ChildFund and advocate of the project, is to use rugby as a unique tool to help boys and girls from disadvantaged communities to deal with a fast changing world and challenges they face in their own communities.
Specifically, a non-contact version of the game known as tag rugby. Last summer, I had the opportunity to travel to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, to engage in its development where my role was to provide support in translating resources and curriculum-related documents into local languages.
Oh, the joy of explaining the scrum in Vietnamese! At the same time, we provided training sessions in co-operation with the Lao Rugby Federation, for local coaches from Laos and Vietnam, many of whom had never seen a rugby ball before in their lives. Not only they received training in rugby-related skills but also life skills facilitation and First Aid that form the core components of the program, which they would have to organise and provide in their local communities.
By the end of the week-long session, they had graduated as certified coaches, ready to deliver the program.
At the present moment, the program is in its first phase but significant progress has been made so far. One example is Kim Boi district in rural Northern Viet Nam, where is the program is under implementation.
By the end of last year, 683 young players have been registered and placed in 43 U13 and U15 age-group teams with 50 per cent female participation, an area that the project places emphasis on.
Previously, Vietnam’s only claim to rugby fame was France international fly-half Francois Trinh Duc, the first professional rugby player of Vietnamese descent. However, another important milestone occurred in the young history of Vietnamese rugby was the organising of the first ever tag rugby tournament in the country last month. With the participation of 42 teams from the Pass It Back program engaged in 95 action-packed games.
The fact that all of the participants, including the organisers were all locals reflect the success of the program to date.
The target is to have 1800 participants by 2017 with further implementation in other countries in the region including some as far as Afghanistan. However, the early successes of the program have captured the imagination of the regional governing body Asia Rugby and World Rugby.
With the World Cup in Japan in three years time, the future is bright for rugby union in this part of the world.
Nghia Mai
Roar Rookie
It will be. At the moment, we're starting with Vietnam and Laos but eventually, it will be implemented widely in different countries across the continent.
Nghia Mai
Roar Rookie
Privileged to hear that from a Roar guru.
Nghia Mai
Roar Rookie
Thanks. It was a summer well-spent. Please feel free to follow Pass It Back on social media.
Nghia Mai
Roar Rookie
No worries, i'm just glad that I'm doing my part in the raising awareness.
Digby
Roar Guru
Thank you, great read.
RobC
Roar Guru
Awesome thanks. Get ready for a little Crazy Cayzer. Hes only four but bigger than most 6yos.
DaniE
Roar Guru
Look for the shortest kids at the field and I'll be there haha. I'm going to have to referee games! *gulp* Your boy will be very welcome, in a team of James Browns :D Yes U6. The craziest of the lot!
Worlds Biggest
Guest
Fantastic article Nghia Mai, thankyou. Congratulations on the work you have done so far, just brilliant !
Rugby Tragic
Guest
Nghia Mai, thanks for your interesting article. Very informative as well as interesting.
RobC
Roar Guru
Yes, I will ask about the Fijians. I too noticed a handful of them on the nat team
RobC
Roar Guru
Cool! Rob Junior (youngest son) is 5 this year (Oct). That would make him U6? Robbie is probably the cat-brainest of the clowder. Also the biggest (for his age), loves to run, bump into people and shout. The shouting is on account of being exposed to a lot of James Brown whilst watching Rugby games. A habit of mine. Thanks for sharing! I'll be there! Im the half-Asian looking guy wearing a Reds cap, with a tiny kid wearing Reds jersey. The venue is few minutes away from my office, and is easy to find.
DaniE
Roar Guru
Cool. Have a chat with them about professional players in MY? There's like 2-3 in each SL club, mainly Fijians. Fascinating how many of them end up in the national side! Yep KLS - heh I am actually a coach of the U6s side. It's like herding cats, but cats are way less funny :D Sunday trainings are the highlight of my week! This Sat-Sun is a HUGE rugby carnival. Like, GIGANTIC. It's worth watching some of it! There's even a team flying in from NZ to play in the U18s. Here's the link https://www.facebook.com/KLSBintangInternationalRugby10s/?fref=nf
RobC
Roar Guru
Hi DaniE! Belated GXFC :) Youre Bintang / Saracens right? Ive been meaning / trying / lamely attempting to go on Sunday am to UM. But one of my son's got Taekwondo same time Juniors are starting this Saturday? Count me in! Can you share the URL of the thingy? Plan to start attending Super League this weekend also re article: - Im in touch with some folks from MRU and COBRA etc. - Friends and Friends of friends it turns out. - Our discussions started this week. - So like everything I plan to write, it will be probably take time
DaniE
Roar Guru
Can't wait to see your article Rob. How are you doing your research here? I've started attending Super Liga games recently and while the quality isn't top-notch, it's lots of fun being present in a club atmosphere. Watching Ruck N Roll on TV too is pretty fun. Our club's got our annual juniors tournament on this weekend - 173 teams and over 2500 players from around southeast Asia attending - it's gonna be brilliant. Hopefully we'll see a team from Lao one day ;) Do come along if you're free Rob, it's at Bukit Kiara eq. centre.
DaniE
Roar Guru
It's brilliant to see this on here. I've been following the Pass It Back program on FB, Twitter etc and really appreciating the linkage between development and sport. Fostering role-modelling, team dynamics and problem-solving through goodwill efforts in this manner is both simple and fun. Keep up the awesome work! Like RobC above, I'm in Malaysia, and it's terrific to see rugby's development in the region. I'm glad that it's come to the attention of World Rugby and Asia Rugby so hopefully it'll be patterned in neighbouring nations too.
Nghia
Guest
and keeping them off the drugs is always a plus
nmpcart
Guest
Growing from the grassroots is a good idea. Get the kids playing and try to retain them in the game so as they grow and improve the overall levels of players involved will grow.
Nghia Mai
Roar Rookie
You're right. We don't have a federation yet so we can't really be part of ARFU/ Rugby Asia but hopefully that will change in the next couple years
Nghia Mai
Roar Rookie
It's because there are only 2 expat-run clubs in Ho Chi Minh city(which I'm a part of) and Hanoi respectively. There is no governing body and we don't have a national side so we can't compete in rugby Asia tournaments so we only just started growing from the grassroots
CUW
Guest
from WIKI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia_Rugby As of February 2015, Asia Rugby has 32 member unions.[1] Not all member unions are members of World Rugby.[6] Asia Rugby members are listed below, with the year each union joined World Rugby shown in brackets. World Rugby associates are shown in italics.[7] There are 17 World Rugby members, and 6 World Rugby associates: Brunei Brunei (2013*) Cambodia Cambodia (2004*) China China (1997) Chinese Taipei Chinese Taipei (1998) Guam Guam (1998) Hong Kong Hong Kong (1988) India India (1999) Indonesia Indonesia (2013) Iran Iran (2010*) Japan Japan (1987) Kazakhstan Kazakhstan (1997) South Korea Korea (1988) Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan (2004*) Laos Lao (2004*) Malaysia Malaysia (1988) Mongolia Mongolia (2004*) Pakistan Pakistan (2008) Philippines Philippines (2008) Singapore Singapore (1989) Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (1988) Thailand Thailand (1989) United Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates (2012) Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (2014) There are 9 members not affiliated with World Rugby Afghanistan Afghanistan Bangladesh Bangladesh Jordan Jordan Lebanon Lebanon Macau Macau Nepal Nepal Qatar Qatar Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia Syria Syria Notes: * Denotes World Rugby associate membership date. The Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union was split up in 2011. It comprised the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman. The new governing body for the UAE is already active and has its own national team. UAE became the 100th full member of World Rugby in November 2012.[8] The other countries have not yet joined the ARFU. Several governing bodies which administer partially, or largely Asian countries, such as that of Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel and Russia are members of the European body, Rugby Europe. Moreover, the recently formed Turkish Rugby Federation is expected to join Europe as well. Conversely, Kazakhstan, which is administered by European associations in other sports (such as within the football governing body, FIFA) is administered as part of Asia Rugby. In addition, Asia Rugby includes Guam (the organized unincorporated territory of the United States), which is arguably not in Asia, but in Oceania, and one transcontinental country, Indonesia.