Formerly known as the Vientiane International Rugby Championship, the DHL Vientiane 10s is the LRF’s flagship competition. In 2019 the Lao Rugby Federation (LRF) partnered with neighboring Hanoi 10s to create a multi-tournament series spanning two weeks in January.4/
The second year of the series will kick off in 2020 with a single-day tournament in Hanoi on 18 January and a multi-day tournament in Vientiane on 25-26 January. More than 20 local and international teams will compete in Men’s, Women’s, and U18 Girls and Boys contact competitions, as well as U13 tag rugby.
In the largest year of the Hanoi 10s competition, 12 senior teams will participate in the men’s and women’s divisions joined by 8 U18s boys’ and girls’ teams from Vietnam’s newly-formed rugby clubs including Coui Ha Club, Hop Dong Club, Thong Tien Club, Nuong Dam Club, Kim Truy Club, and Du Sang Club. In the senior divisions, DAC Weredragons will be returning to the DHL Hanoi 10s to defend their Cup Championship.
The Kim Boi Wild Cats, DAC Rejectors and Hanoi Dragons will also be returning in this year’s men’s division joined by tournament newcomers, Raw Dogs and Hanoi Ghost Dragons. In the women’s division, the Kim Boi Wild Cats will return for the second year of the tournament joined by five teams making their first appearance at the DHL Hanoi 10s including DAC Weredragons, Hanoi Barbarians, NUS Singapore and Alexandre Yersin.
Three visiting international teams from DAC Weredragons will travel to Hanoi prior to the tournament in order to learn about and support the development of rugby in the country through participating in some activities with Vietnamese ChildFund Pass It Back teams.
The ChildFund Pass It Back curriculum, which was piloted in rural Laos from 2012-2014, endeavors to help young people build knowledge and skills through rugby in topics like leadership, gender equity, future planning, safety and health.
Today, more than 3,000 young players are registered and actively participating in the curriculum in Laos and over 1,000 in Vietnam.
In addition to the action on the pitch, the Kim Boi Wild Cats from Hoa Binh Province in Northern Vietnam will be supporting most of the DHL Hanoi 10s tournament management.
In the first year of the competition in Hanoi, the LRF was proud to send Lao staff to support in lead management roles for the largest 10s international competition held in Vietnam to date.
This year, the LRF’s Vietnamese colleagues will be building on the skills they learned in 2019 and taking the reigns as match officials in the U18s competition and as senior first aid and technical leads in the senior competition.