Thailand: The expat who brought rugby to Phuket

With memories of a childhood spent on the rugby field fresh in his mind Cotter

and his fellow Vagabonds were not content to simply set up a club for their

own benefit and nine years ago, they started to look at ways of allowing

local children to participate.

“After the Tsunami, when so many people lost everything, I was racking my

brain how to help in a more prolonged manner,” Pat said. “I

thought that there was a need to get more Thais playing the game, because

doing the youth rugby program would be a way of moving the kids on from the

tragedy and linking education and sport for a better life.”

The first step was to try and introduce schools from as wide a catchment area

as possible to the sport and Cotter and his companions set up a coaching

camp which he says was well attended.

“In conjunction with the Bangkok Bangers Rugby Club we held a coaching camp

for the Southern region at Phang Nga Naval Base where schools were invited

to come down and check out the sport,” he said. “The response was

huge with more than 100 boys and 20 girls attending.”

One of the participating schools was from Phuket and the camp proved so

popular with the students that Cotter and the Phuket Vagabonds decided to

offer the boys regular coaching,

“Sai Nam Yen School is in Patong and the sports teacher, Ajarn Phanom, had

played rugby in university so he brought his schools Under 12s football team

along to check it out. We then developed a training program and the boys did

very well and it all started from there.”

Sai Nam Yen School is situated a stone’s throw away from Phuket’s most

notorious red light district. It’s not an ideal environment for an education

and Cotter says he believes that playing rugby can have a positive impact on

the boy’s lives which goes well beyond the playing field.

“We managed to get a rugby scholarship for one of our older boys at Kasetsart

University where he is studying architecture as well as playing in their

university side – and he’s recently been selected for the Thai Under 20s

squad. We hope that through sport and education we can show that there is a

better future to be had out there and we will try to create opportunities

for them.”

While rugby on Phuket might have been non-existent before Cotter and his

friends decided to found their own club, the island now has something of a

reputation in the international community.

There is a very popular 10s tournament which takes place every year. The

Phuket Rugby 10s can be traced back to 1999 but the tournament has expanded

dramatically since the early days and 29 teams, some from as far afield as

Australia and South Africa, participated in this year’s competition.

The event has also raised a significant amount of money for the Asia Centre

Foundation in Phuket, a charity which helps disadvantaged children, and in

2008 Cotter was honoured for these efforts when he received the Spirit of

Rugby award in a ceremony in London, alongside Roelien Muller from the

foundation.

It was partly a recognition of the improbable way in which Phuket has

developed into a place which now has a global reputation for its rugby and,

according to Cotter, the next step on this journey is to try and find local

players capable of competing at the elite level of the sport.

“In March 2012, I invited Bob Dwyer, the ex-Australian coach, and Mike

Penistone, the ex-Leicester Tigers Elite Performance Director, to come to

Phuket to run a three day coaching clinic. Both men were very impressed with

the talent and skills on show and Mike has since continued to visit Phuket

and is adamant that Thai players, given the right environment, could one day

play at the top level.”

It might be a while before we see a Thai player signed to a top club but,

thanks to Cotter and the Phuket Vagabonds, the sport is going from strength

to strength on a tropical island that is a long way from its traditional

home of Twickenham.

Thailand: The expat who brought rugby to Phuket