Tag Rugby Tour

Please enjoy these pictures of an amazing Tag Rugby tour run in Gitarama in the last week.
Huge thanks to all our volunteers, local coaches and TRDT representative!
Go Blue Tigers!!!

Womens' Rugby alive and kicking in Rwanda

We knew that there were some die-hard female rugby fans in Rwanda, but we didn't know how many. 2 weeks after the National Womens Team was selected for a visit to Uganda, we organised a match between G.S Shyogwe and a school in Remera-Rukoma which was rumoured to have a girls team. We planned a girls 7s game followed by boys
15's. Unfortunately the boys bit was lost in translation, but when we arrived at the school, we discovered that there was a third girls team expecting to play from the nearby school, APPEC.
So we had a 3-way girls 7s tournament. It was great to see, not only the girls loving it, but the huge number of male players on the side, passionately cheering on their girls.
These girls are not going to stop playing any time soon, we just hope that once we leave, future games are organised so that they can improve their skills and experience.
GO GIRLS!!

A long absence from the blog

April was a difficult month for us, with schools on holidays (which got mysteriously extended by a week), our audience was markedly smaller than usual.
We are now back into the think of it...well, kind of since the arrive of volunteer Tom who is on a mammoth rugby coaching tour of Eastern and Southern Africa. We welcome his enthusiasm!
We promised to hold some tournaments for U15 players so headed to the schools rugby heartland of Gitarama to see how many U15s are involved and organise them for the tournament on 10th May. Unfortunately, due to the unforseen extension to school holidays, this turned out to be week 1 of school, whereby students gradually filter back. So, not only was it a struggle to get on a bus on Monday morning but we found the school fraternities to be smaller than expected.
The Rugby Champions, St Joseph's have a strong team of small boys who receied specialist coaching from Tom, but the neighbouring schools are slightly behind. We hope to have a mini-tournament with St Joseph's and St Leon tomorrow, Labour Day holiday.
Our travels in Rwanda are drawing to a close and with only 34 days we have had to make a precise plan to fit in everything that we want to do and to set up carefully for the 3 UK volunteers arriving at the end of May.
We will keep you updated, all plans are subject to change in Rwanda!