LRF Focus On Player Welfare & Educators Leads To Sustained Growth & Community Confidence in Laos

Lao Rugby Federation (LRF) has increased its number of accredited educators with three more becoming First Aid in Rugby (FAIR) World Rugby qualified in the first half of 2024 which will help player welfare in the Southeast Asian country.

It has been a huge undertaking to get non-English native speakers and community members, with limited formal education, qualified – but the benefits are huge. There are greater player numbers, increased community confidence and respect for rugby, and a more capable and responsive team within Laos to drive the sport forward.

Photo Credit: Lao Rugby Federation

It is impressive that these qualified Laotian community coaches do not come from a medical background and also are not necessarily experienced rugby players – but the educator pathway introduced by LRF has added much-needed medical and player welfare expertise to the rugby community in Laos, and perhaps more importantly, buoyed confidence in the sport and earned the respect of local communities.

Viengsamai (‘Vieng’) Souksavanh (CEO of Lao Rugby Federation) says that player welfare work in Laos started a long time ago due to the challenges they faced when implementing national team training and other domestic club activities. Previously, they had to seek external professional help and didn’t have any in-house domestic expertise or anyone from the community they could rely on with the necessary medical and player welfare knowledge.

This created and drove the ambition for the LRF to pursue training and upskilling members to move away from a reactionary to a proactive strategy. Player welfare was, and is, paramount to better manage a range of the player welfare aspects of their community.

For the LRF, the player welfare strategy was focused on risk reduction which relates to players and extends to everyone in the LRF community, including coaches, match officials, volunteers and a range of participants across all LRF activities. 

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Photo Credit: Lao Rugby Federation

LRF Growth – Player Welfare Is Key

Since 2015, the LRF community has grown from 300 to 3,000 players currently – and more than half of all players and coaches are female.

The majority of players are aged between 11-16 years old and the LRF’s approach is to have youth players participate in teams led by young rugby coaches aged between 16-25 years old. 

• As 95 per cent of the LRF’s player and participant base is under 18, there is a focus on keeping everyone safe – this is the highest priority for the LRF in growing the game. 
• Developing the sport posed a number of challenges that Rugby Unions face across Asia; communities didn’t know much about rugby and in most cases had never seen a rugby ball before the LRF’s coaches showed up in their village to run sessions. 
• Training youth coaches in rugby coaching, safeguarding, first aid and life skills has been the platform for LRF’s success and these coaches have become passionate ambassadors for the sport in their communities.

The Medical Trailblazers – Lao Rugby Federation (LRF)

Photo Credit: Lao Rugby Federation

Supporting those who are very passionate about first aid to get to the necessary educator level was a particularly big undertaking for the First Aid in Rugby (FAIR) Educators, because globally, the majority of trained people in this space come from a medical background and are doctors or medical professionals. 

From a first-aid perspective, Vieng recalls that approximately five years ago the LRF started focusing on the first-aid capacity and initially heavily invested in two interested individuals who were community coaches through the Pass It Back partnership, and who wanted to receive first-aid training – Ms Phonesavanh Sengmany and Mr Vathana Sombathniyom.

Both were young (one was a university student and the other a recent graduate at the time) and both gravitated towards the medical side and worked closely with first aid professionals who visited Laos from Hong Kong and Singapore to conduct training in Laos. They initially trained the pair alongside a team of basic ambulance workers.

Joy Walter from Singapore Rugby would visit and support from a medical side, either for major domestic tournaments like the Vientiane Tens or national team events, and Ms Phonesavanh Sengmany and Mr Vathana Sombathniyom learned from her too. 

Between 2020-2024, Lao Rugby Federation set a target as part of their strategic plan to increase the number of Lao-speaking educators trained as first aid in rugby educators, who once they had the qualifications, could train others in the community on achieving Level 1 First Aid in Rugby accreditations. 

This would lead to a cascading effect in improving the number of trained members, and even though the pandemic delayed the plans, they were successful in fulfilling the goals with the support of people like Walter and others who provided continuous support through online sessions.

Walter now manages medical support services for Singapore Rugby Union and their national teams and worked at the recent Singapore Rugby Festival 2024 and Singapore SVNS and SEA7s.

Walter told Rugby Asia 247, “These qualified FAIR educators become community leaders and the qualifications obtained open up doors for them to pursue medical professions if they enjoy the line of work – the more experience they get and learn, the more value they add to their communities.”

She was also full of praise for the commitment and work from within LRF to pursue and focus on player welfare, adding, “LRF have some of the best ratios in the region and even compared to other regions for the number of trained medical staff and coach educators to players, and all credit must go to them for driving this internally for what they have achieved.”

For the Laos community coaches to be trained at the FAIR World Rugby Educator level is a massive accomplishment.

LRF Rugby First Aid Qualifications – Positive Community Impacts

Photo Credit: Lao Rugby Federation

In 2022, Ms Phonesavanh Sengmany and Mr Vathana Sombathniyom achieved their Level 1 First Aid in Rugby qualifications from World Rugby and subsequent FAIR accreditation. 

Once someone is qualified as an Educator, they can train others in level 1 qualifications under the stream they are qualified to deliver and in the Lao language. Hence, they have since embarked on training hundreds of others in their communities, the Pass It Back and club coaches, and those within the domestic club rugby communities such as youth coaches and community members, demonstrating tangible player welfare and first aid is paramount to the LRF’s work.

Additionally, it means through the work of the LRF, there is a ready and trained group who can react to any potential rugby-related injuries, but perhaps more importantly, be among the most well-trained and capable of dealing with day-to-day incidents as they might be the highest-trained first aiders within their community.

Getting to this point was a massive achievement and took a team effort from many within the rugby communities of LRF, as well as from Hong Kong China Rugby and Singapore Rugby Union who were available to offer support, encouragement, and advice to fulfil LRF’s goals as well as delivering coursework in the local language.

With the strong ratio of female leadership across the game compared to the global average, ensuring young women are trained in these leadership roles and all custodians of the game are trained in first aid and safeguarding has been a driving factor in the growth and development of the game in Laos.

Thus far, LRF have run:

• 11 FAIR Level 1 courses with 111 community coaches qualified as FAIR Level 1 accredited.
• More than 50% of recipients are female.
• Level 1 Coaches, Match Officials and rugby volunteers have been among those trained in first aid.

Vieng is very appreciative and thankful of the support of so many, and recognises this would not have been possible without their support. As part of the LRF strategy, they continue to work towards every contact, touch or tag event to have a qualified person in attendance.

Increasing The Number of LRF World Rugby FAIR Educators

Photo Credit: Lao Rugby Federation

LRF strived to increase the number of qualified educators who could run the FAIR training by adding four more individuals (two male and two female) under the guidance of the existing qualified educators and Walter.

In March 2024, the four attended the Educator course in Bangkok, Thailand, with three passing their qualifications; Mr Lembo Phouykhamdeng, Ms Minou Seansathid, Ms Naly Xaydaoheuang, while Ms Maivathor also took the course and aims to pass it in her native language in Laos in mid-2024.

The educators come from rural areas and are young with a lot of potential – they have the skills and knowledge, and these qualifications mean they also have the respect of the community which they take great pride in. They can support their community and society beyond rugby and further improve the healthcare expertise available within Laos. 

“This is an exciting and sustainable model to build confidence in the rugby programs within the communities and ensure player welfare is top of the agenda for LRF, and help propel the sport forward while benefiting local communities too,” said Vieng.

“The skillsets being learned by the young educators are highly respected, so it adds layers of respect to the coaches and the work they do as a whole. It goes way beyond rugby and is more holistic in its approach for player and community welfare,” added Vieng.

Broad Player Welfare Approach – Lao Rugby Federation

The broad view on player welfare in Laos is essential as players in some of the regions the programmes operate in, are at risk due to real-life dangers such as human trafficking (an issue on the rise across all of Southeast Asia following the pandemic). 

This means the LRF leadership and coaches are constantly assessing how it can reduce risks and be proactive in player welfare from a physical and emotional safety perspective, ensuring that young people are cared for and that lines of communication are open for reporting concerns etc.

“When the players are with us, they are in our care and their parents, guardians and the community trust us to take care of their children,” said Vathana, one of the LRF’s Senior Managers and one of the first World Rugby FAIR Educators in Laos.

“We take this duty very seriously and ensure all of our staff and coaches have background checks, are trained in first aid and safeguarding and are aware of different risks that might happen during a training session or rugby event so we can work together to prevent and respond to them.”

To support this growth, harm and risk reduction remain at the forefront of how LRF will safely expand rugby in Laos – which extends to safeguarding training and risk identification, assessment and responses. As a standard practice, background checks and other measures also are in place.

Photo Credit: Lao Rugby Federation

Currently, the LRF has:

• 5 First Aid in Rugby (FAIR) World Rugby Educators
• 3 Coach World Rugby Educators
• 3 Match Official World Rugby Educators. 

This broad lens on welfare extends to nutrition, education safety support, and other health aspects, which all benefit the LRF, the players and the communities for growing and retaining the rugby community.

A lot of Vieng’s and the LRF team’s work involves interacting with parents, teachers, and community leaders and how and why young people should be involved with rugby. Safeguarding is often at the top of the agenda in terms of importance and what parents and leaders connect with and value, especially for the parents and guardians of girls.

The Lao Rugby Federation CEO can already see their strategic efforts have been producing results because of the growth in the player base and positive associations of the sport across Laos – it is seen as offering a safe space and helping participants get involved and be looked after.

Viengsamai (‘Vieng’) Souksavanh – CEO of Lao Rugby Federation – (bottom left) with LRF sevens players and Joy Walter SRU (bottom right)

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