American Sport Professionals Help to Bring Lao Rugby to Hong Kong

Growing the game is a legacy of love for many rugby supporters.  The International Rugby Board lists 118 different countries where the game is present and managed by dedicated, and often multi-cultural, groups of professionals.  The Lao Rugby Federation (LRF), based in Vientiane, Laos, is one such Federation currently delivering various rugby development opportunities to local and expatriate rugby enthusiasts.  Several members of the USA Rugby community all play key roles in managing the daily operations of the Lao Rugby Federation, ranging from event operations to technical development.

As a recent push towards developing quality high-performance programming, the LRF, with the generous support of Silver Heritage Limited, DAC Management, and Gao Fei Consulting, will be sending a representative side of senior and U20 men’s national team players to compete in the Altus Kowloon RugbyFest and to take in the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens.  This represents massive commitment from the Lao players, who have been training and raising funds over the last six months to participate in this exceptional competition.  Many of the players are students and from families of very limited means.  Laos is a United Nations-designated Least Developed Country (LDC) in which 27 per cent of the population lives on less than USD 1 per day, in which 50 per cent of rural children under 5 is severely malnourished and where the annual gross national income per capita is USD 1010.

The team, called the Silver Heritage Lao Nagas, is coached by Katie Wurst of USA Rugby, who has been working for the LRF for the past year to develop rugby from the grassroots to the elite level.  Ms. Wurst  has also coached the Lao Women’s National 7s and 15s teams, and is putting the Lao Women’s Junior All-Star side through its paces for upcoming matches versus the Hong Kong U18 Girls National Team and the Thai Women’s Junior National Team.  Funding for this exceptional opportunity is available largely through the efforts of fellow Americans Megan Knight and Maggie Dillon, who manage general operations, fundraising, and sponsorship fulfillment for Lao Rugby.  Knight also serves as the team manager for the Silver Heritage Lao Nagas, while Dillon represents the LRF as the first female member of the Asian Rugby Football Union executive committee.  Each LRF staff member is looking forward to taking in high-quality rugby action at the Altus Kowloon RugbyFest, IRB Women’s 7s Challenge Cup, and the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens event alongside the Silver Heritage Lao Nagas.

The Silver Heritage Lao Nagas players will share inspirations from their Hong Kong experience back in Laos, where they are leaders of their clubs, staff at the LRF, and rugby coaches in the LRF’s Champa Ban youth rugby initiative. Champa Ban, which translates to “little blossoms,” uses rugby as a vehicle to deliver healthy living and personal development messages to children.  Champa Ban is inspired by USA Rugby’s 2011 IRB Development Award winning Rookie Rugby program.  For more information about the Silver Heritage Lao Nagas, Champa Ban, and opportunities related to the Lao Rugby Federation, please visit www.laorugby.com and follow Lao Rugby on facebook (www.facebook.com/laorugby).

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