Edwin Doran Sports Travel sponsors Moldova in the Tour Aid Nations Cup this September

[06-09-2007]

Touraid is organising an U14 Cup competition to take place on 27th and 29th  September 2007 featuring 10 teams from very diverse and contrasting countries:  Swaziland, India, Cambodia, Zambia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Romania, Rwanda, Kenya and South Africa.

The boys all stem from disadvantaged backgrounds and are part of a school or club that has already played rugby.

These teams will travel to the UK to stay with schools across the South-East who will provide accommodation, transfers and meals, education and use of facilities. The host schools and the respective community will benefit from hosting the children by developing a deep understanding of their cultural and social background. Past experience has shown that six nights will enable a good bond to develop between the host community and their guests. This will enable a greater chance of a long-lasting and unique legacy to develop.

Each touring team will be linked with a host school, rugby club and tour sponsor. This will create more of a community approach to any post tour support.  The team from Moldova is comprised of boys from Ciorescu School, Nr Chisinau. The school adopted rugby across the years after the Headmistress saw the difference in the attitude to school from one class being taught rugby by an exchange teacher from Spain.  Their host school is Esher High School, Harlequins Rugby Club is their support club, while Edwin Doran Sports Travel acts as sponsor.

During the week a tournament will be hosted for all the ten teams over the two days of competition.  The group stages will be held at Esher RFC and the finals at The Richmond Athletic Ground.  A tournament for the host schools will run in parallel and there will be plenty of opportunity for joint practice sessions.

Premiership rugby club and RFU coaches will be on hand during the week and one of Touraid's Ambassadors ~ Chester Williams, Phil Greening and Sue Day ~ will visit the host schools to meet all involved.

The interaction with the touring teams has been shown to be an enormously positive educational experience for the children in the UK.  Schools have used the opportunity of cultural and social understanding to involve all aspects of curriculum from PE, IT, modern foreign languages, Citizenship, PSHE, Geography, History, Art, DT and RE.

It is expected that all the children will benefit from the experience of 'Touring for a Week, Learning for a Lifetime'.