Earlier in the week, Leicester Tigers asked the rugby community to send in their ‘good news’ stories from local clubs around the world.
With a number of clubs already involved, it appears news also reached as far as China as expat and Tigers fan Kevin Lowe got in touch with the club to share his club’s story of raising funds for two charities.
Kevin is president of Guangzhou Rams RFC based in South China who were first established back in 1997 comprising of expats and locals. Now celebrating 25 years together, the club has a mens, womens and juniors section alongside a recruitment programme for foreign language teachers and careers.
Kevin explained: “The first teams participates in a country wide competition each season which concludes with the final for the China Cup. They also regularly play against teams from the Hong Kong Leagues.
“Gradually, we have gone from being a purely social team towards creating a pathway from youth up to full adult contact groups.
“We are closely associated with the South China Agricultural University where we helped establish the sport and we have had several players work their way to the 1st team via training whilst the guys were studying there.”
Last month, volunteers from the club held a charity event to raise money for Doddie Weirs ‘My Name’5 Dobbie’ charity as well as HK Impact, who work to support the homeless in Hong Kong.
“The aim was to accumulate enough miles walked in a week to equal the distance from HK to Murray field, which is about 5,911 miles. Assisting the homeless charity was particularly relevant to us as a club as a number of us also support a similar charity here in Guangzhou.
“Personally I clocked up 154km towards the total, but it was just great to get out and about over the week and breathe in the warm air for two really great causes.
“As well as aiming to grow awareness and participation in the sport we try to get into the community. We have a group called ‘Homeless love’ that the team helps to distribute food, clothing and assistance to and host several charity sporting dinners.”
