HCM CITY — The 4th Wolf Blass Saigon Rugby 10’s Tournament was held at RMIT, District 7, HCM City last weekend.

The tournament, with the 38 teams participating and a further 12 teams on standby, is hosted and managed by the Al Fresco’s Group (AFG) and the Castelo Group HK, with the support of official naming rights partner Wolf Blass Wines.

This year’s tournament attracted 38 teams and over 600 players from more than 10 countries, with players travelling from South Africa, New Zealand and Australia as well as many neighbouring teams across the Asian region.

Teams competed for coveted bragging rights across three divisions: A Grade, Vets Men (over 35 years old) and Women’s.

This year’s A Grade Cup winners were the Headhunter Sports Barbariansm, who defeated Nedlands RFC in a hard-fought contest. In the play-off for third and fourth, the South Brisbane Magpies won the bowl with a win over the Kamesenryu Dragons.

In the Veteran’s division, first-time attendees the Hamilton Dynamiter Pups defeated the Kamesenryu Vets, with the South Africa-based Pups proving too strong to be overcome.

In the Women’s final, it was a case of déjà vu as the same teams faced off for the title as last year. The Bucks RFC yet again got the better of their rivals the Southerners Women.

With the biggest turnout the tournament has had to date, there were many local spectators who attended the two-day game at RMIT, with an increase in families who were able to enjoy some entertaining games of Rugby whilst the kids enjoyed their time in the AGS Four Winds children’s activity centre.

“Once again, on behalf of the event organisers, we are very grateful for all the support we receive from our sponsor partners, as without this support, we just would not be able to put on an event of this size. I would also like to do a personal shout out to all the referees and the team from AFG who worked tirelessly in the build-up to the event and also over the weekend to make sure that everyone was enjoying their time,” said Eric Kerrison, the event’s Marketing Manager.

The aim of the Wolf Blass Saigon 10’s is to put Sài Gòn firmly on the map as a destination in Asia to play rugby and have a fantastic time doing it. The numbers of participating and standby teams show that the aim was met.

Dale Rees from the Mana Game Changers was glowing in his praise of the event, emailing the organisers to say, “Thanks for an amazing event, I personally have travelled to every corner of the globe for rugby and this is by far one of the best-run events out there!”

The success of this tournament will continue to help the game of rugby grow in the region and the AFG look forward to a bigger and better event in 2019. — VNS