Coach’s Corner | Up and under in Ulan Bator

While most of you were gearing up for the start of the new HKRFU Premiership season two weekends ago, Peter Drewett and I seized upon a unique opportunity to visit Ulan Bator for a training session with Mongolia’s national team – our fellow members of the Asian Rugby Football Union family.

When all eyes in Hong Kong were on the opening weekend’s clash between HKCC and Valley, the domestic season in Mongolia had all but finished. However, preparations were already in place for Mongolia’s upcoming Snow Rugby competition and the players were also eagerly looking ahead to the 2015 ARFU Asian Five Nations.

Mongolia are currently in Division IV of the A5N, but are keen to graduate to higher levels of competition. And from what we witnessed on the ground, they could become an up-and-coming force in Asian rugby.

Last summer, Mongolia competed in a triangular competition in Brunei against the hosts and Cambodia. They won handily, too, beating Cambodia 49-5 and Brunei 38-13.

Mongolia are hoping to build off this performance and climb the next rung on the Asian rugby ladder. So an invite was extended to Hong Kong to help them in this goal by assisting the national team in their preparations.

And on behalf of the HKRFU, new national coach development manager Peter and I were pleased to accept. So we packed our woolly hats, gloves and thermals and headed to Ulan Bator for a coaching clinic with the Mongolian National 15.