The Phnom Penh Social Rugby Club is all set to host the Indochine Cup featuring men’s Tens contact rugby and mixed touch rugby at the International School of Phnom Penh Complex on Saturday.

With the cup rotating location every year between the participating teams, the field for the current edition includes Saigon Geckos (defending champions for five years), Yangon Dragons, Vientiane Buffaloes and local hopefuls PPSRC Rahus, who are eager to win the trophy for the first time.

Only after a year of forming the club, the Rahus, now boast full range line-ups, with men’s, old boys, women’s and youth sides involved at varying levels of both forms of the game.

The Rahus have had a busy run of competitive games of late, having finished second both in the Bangkok Tens and a regional mixed touch rugby tournament at home.

Apart from these engagements, the Rahus have hosted Saigon Geckos, Brigalow Bushwackers from Australia and Causeway Bay RFC from Hong Kong.

The Rahus, as the Kingdom’s standard bearers, had beaten the Geckos on their way to the final of the Cambodia Tens last year. It was a significant milestone since no Cambodian side had made the final in years and the Geckos had never been beaten by a local team.

On the top of this success, the Rahus inflicted a loss on the Geckos when they visited Phnom Penh in April for a 15s game. Last weekend the Rahus also scored a notable win over Causeway Bay.

On the touch rugby side, the Rahus have done extremely well, and are defending champions of the Indochine Cup, beating the hosts Saigon Geckos in Saigon last year.

Since then the club has participated at the Asia Championships as the first team from Cambodia to do so and has won the SASSMITT title in Bangkok, as well as placing second in the Phnom Penh event in March this year.

“We are proud of the results and progress of the club to date,” club secretary Steve Noble told the Post yesterday.

“With the lack of a domestic league in Cambodia, we have tempted a number of regional teams to visit Phnom Penh and have helped cement the capital as a great touring venue and we have a targeted tournaments ourselves to attend.

“This exposure is great for all of our players especially the Cambodian contingent as it enables them to assess the quality overseas and their own standing,” he added.

“Although we have put together a good set of results this past year in contact and touch rugby, nobody is complacent and we realise we will have to be at our best to defend the touch rugby title and try to win the men’s Tens contact title. We hope fans in Phnom Penh will get behind their local rugby team on Saturday,” Noble said.

The event is supported by sponsors and partners such as Danmeats, Sun and Moon Hotel, Paddy Rice and Land Rover. Entry to the event is free.