Grassroots to Global Connect 2025 – What The Asian Representatives Learned and Hope To Achieve

The Grassroots to Global (G2G) Connect Forum saw 68 delegates from 34 countries attend a series of events in Sunderland in the lead-up to the opening of the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025, and after the final event, we sat down with representative delegates from Singapore, Nepal, the Philippines, and Hong Kong.

The week-long conference ran from 17- 23 August in Sunderland, took place up to the opening Match of the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025. From Asia, there were delegates from Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Lao PDR, Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Philippines, but we only had time to hear from a smaller group who elaborated on their key learnings and how they hope to help shape the development of the game in their respective countries and in Asia as a region.

The four delegates we spoke with are:

• Alisha Thapa from Nepal represented Nepal rugby, where she handles their Women’s Development Committee and her own club.

Alisha Thapa

• Constance Lowcock is from Hong Kong, who says she “joined the rugby ecosystem three years ago from grassroots rugby, never having played rugby before.” She is the Vice Chair of her club, the University Rugby Football Club, with the ambition to take it forward and hopefully to a wider audience one day.

• Michaila Alsagon represents the Philippine Rugby Football Union. She said, “So I never played rugby before, and I just joined the Pass It Back program from ChildFund, and now I am coaching 11 to 16-year-olds, T1 rugby and life skills.”

Michaila Alsagon

• Mielan Dia represents Singapore. ‘I’ve only been playing rugby for about a year. I’ve been playing in both my university team and an external club called the Wolves. I used to play touch, so that was just a natural pipeline for me to go from touch to contact.”

Mielan Dia

Biggest Takeaways from Grassroots to Global Connect 2025

All four women are at different stages of their rugby journeys – we asked them what they’ve enjoyed and their biggest positive takeaway from the G2G Global Connect Forum in Sunderland.

Alisha: I was so happy to come here and discover ways to grow the game and improve my confidence.”

Constance: I think my biggest takeaway from this experience was the network and the connections made from not just the delegates, but meeting people from World Rugby, from other stakeholders like the IOC, and even just getting to know what ChildFund does a lot more.

I think we’re in a position from Hong Kong where the streamlining of grassroots to elite level is much more distinct and distinguished, as opposed to other communities. And I think it’s been a very humbling experience to learn and hear from all these other communities that may not be as fortunate, and it really gives me the inspiration and drive to want to help.”

Constance Lowcock and other delegates in Sunderland for Grassroots to Global Connect 2025

Michaila: I am really happy to represent the Philippines here. At first, I was overwhelmed because I’ve met a lot of people from different countries, and I’m happy that I get to know them, and also how to communicate with them. Something that I really valued was talking to significant people in the rugby community and from World Rugby. I also want to thank ChildFund Rugby, as they’re making a big impact in my community. 

Mielan: I think my biggest takeaway is just how universal the sport is. I think for a lot of us coming into this program, it’s been a recurring thought amongst all of us that we didn’t know how universal our problems were until we actually talked to everyone here. 

The fact that we have all these varied experiences, whether our country has been doing well in rugby or not, we just have been bouncing ideas off one another, and that’s just been so fulfilling to see, and so heartening as well.

I felt like rugby was just a small thing in Singapore. And then I realised I got out here and it’s ‘oh, this sport actually means something to so many of us, and us women. It’s been awesome to see that.”

Photo Credit – ChildFund Rugby – Grassroots to Global Connect Forum 2025

Growing the Game

We asked them what their biggest self-reflection was in terms of what they individually can do in their country or the Asian region to help rugby grow.

Mielan: That’s a great question. I think, coming from Singapore, one of the things that was brought up a lot in the forum was that parents or friends would not understand why women played rugby, or, more specifically, why we played rugby. That’s something that I’ve come to learn that everyone in Asia has a problem with.

In Asian culture, it’s very traditionally feminine. We have to be dainty. We have to be reserved, as someone mentioned in the forum, that we’re seen and not heard. 

And so that’s something that I think we have to work on as a region, and more specifically in Singapore, I’m just more interested in how we can change perspectives around women in sport, because Singapore has a great sports community, but rugby is just always in the background.

And empowering women to actually step into such a crazy game, and seeing how the values and principles that we learned can be proliferated.

Constance Lowcock with her team in Hong Kong

Constance: I really echo that point. Coming into this forum and with the regional aspect in mind, it has been really humbling to realise that, actually, within Asia alone, there are so many cultural, societal norms and barriers that we all face.

For me, learning to be able to find ways to break those barriers down at that community level would be really important to change perceptions on how people see women in rugby and just rugby as a whole.

It really builds on more than just the sport aspects of teamwork and leadership. Aspects of life and how you want to portray yourself and your confidence, and how you are driven to achieve things outside of just the sport itself.

Alisha: We have a lot of these challenges at the grassroots level, too, in Nepal. Nobody knows about the sport, even though we’ve hosted three international tournaments.

When I go back, I’m going to expand into seven provinces and try to get rugby introduced at the school level and into other cities, too. I’ve been breathing and moving rugby forward for 10 years and doing so voluntarily.

Michaila Alsagon with her team in the Philippines

Michaila: I’d love to see more women get the opportunity to coach in the community, and to expand out to more provinces.

We talk about the barriers, the lack of awareness in rugby and for the people in the Philippines, they associate rugby with a glue that makes people high (like an illegal drug) when you inhale it. And so I want to change that stigma.”

She explained that rugby is the name of the glue, hence the perception issue in the Philippines when you say you are going to get involved in rugby!

Michaila explained: “When you go to the streets and then tell everyone that you are playing rugby, they will laugh at you. because the first thing that comes to their mind is the glue.

And so when I go back, I really hope that more and more people know about the rugby community, and rugby is not just about the sport but also about the values rugby has. I’ve seen the impact that it has in my community, and more and more children have become interested in sports. So many people from back home have messaged me as they’ve seen I’m here and are asking how to play and get involved.

Boundaries And Challenges

Picking up on that point, we wanted to find out what the reaction had been from their friends or families or people they know in their countries about being involved in rugby and being at the Rugby World Cup 2025?

Constance: For me, personally, I’ve received a lot of positive feedback and a lot of support…..when we did the Hong Kong forum back in May, there were actually quite a lot of candidates who were already putting their hand up and saying, ‘I want to be in leadership and want to have that voice on this stage.’

So my being here is not just a privilege, but I speak for those voices who are right by my side, doing things on top of what grassroots to global already provides, and it’s incredible to see that. They’re already making waves in their own right, and it’s just about continuing to share each other’s stories and support each other.

Mielan: I think what I experienced, apart from just the support from people who play rugby, a lot of my friends were like, ‘I didn’t know you’re doing this. What is this? What is this social movement about? Like, why do you keep posting stories every single day?’ I’m usually spamming everyone on Instagram,’ she said, laughing.

I think we’re showing rugby to more than just players, to more than just coaches, to more than people within the community. A lot of us rugby players – we wear more than one hat. We’re not just rugby players, we’re not just coaches, we’re not just referees, we like we’re mothers, we work in different industries.

It is a privilege to be here and to represent all those different roles and all those different voices, that’s also just such a great way for us to put eyes on the sport and change perceptions.

Alisha Thapa with her Nepal colleague at Grassroots to Global Connect 2025

Alisha: I’m handling a range of responsibilities with the Nepal national rugby team, junior teams, and provinces. The girls and women who play know they have an opportunity, and we have two delegates here, including myself, so others can see you might end up on a plane and share this sport with others. 

We have limited resources in Nepal and limited infrastructure for fields etc. So I’m proud to share the message and spread rugby and appreciate every opportunity of this Grassroot to Global forum.

Do They Feel Empowered?

The week at the Grassroots to Global Connect 2025 was intense, and a lot was learned. We asked the Asian representatives if they were leaving feeling empowered or at a crossroads in terms of where to go next.

Alisha: I’m empowered as I feel like I heard everyone’s challenges and opportunities, but we have come together here and presented to World Rugby our demands. I’m a leader and I want to be a mentor – I leave here full of enthusiasm.

Michaila: “I feel empowered, but also I feel like there’s a challenge, but I’ll accept the challenge. I came here and leave here with a purpose – to change the perceptions of the communities when I go back to my country. And I really want to achieve that goal. I hope that I get the support also from my union to actualise the project that we’ve made during the forum. 

I’ve learned so much in my time here and will go back happily to deliver what I have learned to my community and share my learnings.”

Constance:  “I think something that I’ve learned as well from this experience is that we have such common ground with barriers and drivers as well. 

It’s nice to then think about always just focusing on what our nation or country is thinking, but about how we can piggyback off of each other, like we’re neighbouring countries that have such drastic disparities between the level of rugby and the level of support within that. 

Something that Hong Kong Rugby does quite well, but it could be leveraged even more so, and fly into different countries to help with grassroots rugby or help build up teams from different countries, just to give them more education and a platform to begin with.

I think that’s something I’m quite motivated by personally as well. Learning from these experiences and really hone in on that. I think there’s so much room for potential as the women are already there, and they’re working on the ground. It’s just about really giving them that platform.

Mielan Dia presenting in Singapore for the Grassroots to Global Connect 2025

Mielan: Personally, I’m a little bit more like, so what’s next? This has been awesome. This is great. But I think we’re all running on this high, but what if that dies out? I hope that we continue looking back at what we’ve talked about in the last week and really focus on our next steps.

What is the Grassroots to Global Connect 2025

The G2G Connect Forum is a community leadership initiative of ChildFund Rugby that brings together emerging young female grassroots leaders from around the world to build networks and drive social change through rugby.

The global series has engaged more than 1,000 women in 32 forums in 29 countries over the past year and built on the inaugural Grassroots to Global (G2G) Series.

The community-led Grassroots to Global Connect roundtable aimed to showcase strategies and insights developed by young women in grassroots rugby leadership across 29 countries. We listened to the groups presenting with the most senior members of the World Rugby Women’s program present to hear first-hand their concerns.

Photo Credit – ChildFund Rugby

Prior to the week, ChildFund Rugby said:

• Having a female Coach is the strongest driver for girls and women to get involved in community rugby.
• Global Data revealed that only 8% of rugby Coaches worldwide are women.

ChildFund Rugby’s Deputy Director, Megan Knight, added, “Grassroots to Global shows what’s possible when we empower girls and women in rugby. The initiative reveals both the challenges they face – from financial barriers to discrimination – and what keeps them engaged: especially the vital role of female coaches and community role models. By building a connected network of driven leaders across the women’s game, we’re creating the foundation for rugby’s more equitable future.”

What Was Presented to World Rugby by the G2G 2025 Delegates?

We will use Mielan’s words here as she said it best online:

“Despite our cultural differences, we worked together to distil 11 ideas into 3 recommendations to break down barriers for women in rugby coaching. These recommendations were presented at a roundtable attended by 120 members of the rugby community, including 30 key stakeholders from World Rugby. International Olympic Committee – IOC, ChildFund Rugby and more.

Our calls to action include:

1. A scholarship/dedicated fund to improve access to coaching for women
2. The publication of gender-disaggregated data for better allocation of resources
3. A globally recognised mentorship framework for women coaches

Editor’s Note – Hong Kong China are holding an event in honour of Constance Lowcock’s return from the Grassroots to Global Conference in England on September 9th in Hong Kong. Lowcock also serves as a Vice Chairman at the University Rugby Football Club in Hong Kong.

ChildFund 2025 & Rugby Development News

• Strong Asian Representation at Grassroots to Global Connect Forum 2025 Ahead of WRWC Opening.
• World Rugby and ChildFund Rugby Set For Next Phase of the Grassroots to Global Forums.
• Lexi Chambers – Smashing Records, Inspiring Others, and How Rugby Has Changed Her Life.
• ChildFund Rugby Confirm Additional Ambassadors.