Mongolian Adventure

18 August 2017

Once again, the rugby club was honoured to be invited to Mongolia to partake in a rugby and academic outreach tour.

The tour began with a five day training camp out in the mountains to the North-East of Ulaanbaatar, where the boys mixed rugby training with traditional Mongolian nomadic lifestyles. Following a chance to get acclimatised to both the altitude and the heat, the group headed back into the capital city with renewed focus about the two matches ahead. In both games the college side was victorious, triumphing in two bruising, close encounters. The results levelled the ‘Mongolia-Hertford series’ at two a-piece with the 2013 tourists having lost both of their encounters.

While in UB, the group spent a special day visiting a local underprivileged school, who the Mongolian Rugby Football Union are helping to rehabilitate through the medium of rugby, an up and coming sport in Mongolian culture.  A truly memorable opportunity to continue to aid the MRFU with the local projects they diligently execute in and around Ulaanbaatar. Other significant activities included a visit to the largest equestrian statue in the world, which depicted local hero Genghis Khan valiantly riding a 40m high metal horse and a reception from the British embassy in Ulaanbaatar.

We would like to thank all the Hertford College donors for their help with what was an unique opportunity to further promote a growing relationship between the college and both the Mongolian Rugby Football Union and the Mongolian government alike. As a club, we appreciate that tours to countries as far away and as unique as Mongolia would not be possible without your input.

Marcus Hoddinott (2015) Captain