Johnny Harris Tells Us What Dai Viet Rugby Is And Why Laying The Foundations Are Key Before Talks of Establishing a Vietnam Rugby Federation

Dai Viet Rugby was formed in 2024 by a long-term expat, Johnny Harris, who is a Scotsman living in Vietnam and has played rugby since he was five or six years old. “My whole family played. My dad played, my brother played, and all my cousins played as well. So it is a big rugby family, a big rugby background”.

In his more than a decade of living in Vietnam, he has been playing with the Hanoi Dragons and previously worked with ChildFund Rugby and Pass It Back. He tells us in a broad discussion about Dai Viet Rugby’s ambitions of growing the game, setting up a national rugby federation (which currently does not exist), and the three core portfolio pieces to drive participation and development, including the Hanoi 10s tournament.

The Attraction of Vietnam – And The Rise of Social Rugby

Johnny Harris went to university with the plan of becoming an English literature teacher, as he explained, it was the only thing he liked at school, other than sport.

“I didn’t really want to do sports my whole life, which is funny, I remember thinking that at the time, so I thought I’d be a teacher, because I always knew that I liked coaching. I liked being in that educational space. I like helping people, and so I decided to go overseas to do a little bit of teaching abroad.

There were two reasons for that. One was to do a little bit of exploring and be in a different culture, and two was to get as far away from Scotland as I could, just to see something different. I felt I wasn’t ready to be in a career like being a teacher, but at the time, I had four options through an internship to go overseas, and the choices were China, Thailand, Poland, and Vietnam. 

I didn’t know anything about Vietnam, except for what I’d seen in the movies. And so I chose to come to Vietnam in 2013 and ended up teaching and teacher development work for the first three years of my time here in Vietnam.”

At that stage, Harris was not looking to play rugby as he explained he had played his whole life. “I just kind of wanted a break from it at the time. I wanted to make new friends, have new experiences, but I knew the Hanoi Dragons were there, but it was about a year before I felt like I needed that outlet. And I like having a different group of friends, and the club community, and that’s when I got into the club, and I’ve been part of the Dragons ever since, and I still am.”

Johnny Harris – Vietnam’s Hanoi Dragons / Da Viet Rugby

We both agreed that the clubs in the region are an important attraction for expats, and they form a strong nucleus for foreigners living abroad.

“I think for a lot of people who live overseas, the rugby club is their immediate kind of family or support system. So it holds a close space in people’s hearts. I think the work that has been done to grow rugby across Asia over the last couple of years has been great, and social media is a big part of that.

Teams in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, they’re looking for something a little bit different, and they’re looking for a little end-of-season tour, and they just Google it, and they see, oh, the Hanoi 10s, oh, the Vientiane 10s, or the Phnom Penh 10s. So it’s quite interesting, and I think it’s becoming more and more of a quite cool destination for people to come and play, but also, kind of do better touring and see the places very, very different from where they live,” he added.

How Did Dai Viet Rugby Come About and What is it?

Johnny explained the situation in Vietnam, where there has been a healthy social rugby expat scene for decades and some development work via projects like Childfund Rugby and Pass It Back. ChildFund Rugby is now a World Rugby Social Impact Partner and celebrates a decade of its programs in May 2025.

Johnny explained, “There’s no rugby Federation in Vietnam. There’s no structure in Vietnam. There are no playing opportunities for us in Vietnam, and that’s just always been the case. It’s just mostly a bunch of foreigners. It’s very difficult for foreigners to sort of advocate for that, or to push for a federation.

I used to work for Childfund Rugby, and we used to be called Pass It Back, and I was there for just under eight years. During my time there, I played a role in supporting the team in Vietnam, but it no longer operates here. That was around the same point I had started doing my own thing, doing my own facilitation and training work.

I was still doing a lot of community rugby and coaching for the Dragons, working with the team up in Ninh Binh and trying to help them to get some resources, to get some sponsorship, to help them come and play, to come and referee some of the games, and just to continue some of the work that had been put in place.

My plan was to make loads of money with the business, and to use that money to fund some social rugby and the team in Hua Bin in year three, which will be next year (2026).

It just so happened that things started to gain a little bit of momentum, and I was spending a lot of time doing this stuff anyway, so I figured I might as well try and focus on this, to try and make it sustainable. There’s no real knowledge of rugby in Vietnam, and it’s really hard to get corporate sponsorships, and if you want to get international funds into Vietnam, it’s also quite difficult.

So I decided to start by setting up a legal entity that can run rugby activities in Vietnam, so we have a focal point to drive the sport in Vietnam. I also thought if I’m spending my time doing it anyway, I might as well try and do it properly, and rather than just doing the odd competition here or the odd game there. I wanted to have a model that we can use to sustain itself.”

“If you think of Dai Viet as the rugby federation in Vietnam, that’s essentially the model that we’re trying to follow because of the lack of a federation, and we have a couple of Dai Viet Key Portfolio Pieces”

He explained the core portfolio aspects, which we have summarised here:

1. The Hanoi 10s is an annual event that gets the most eyes on rugby in Vietnam, both domestically and internationally. It has grown from 2019, when they had about four teams and fewer than 100 players, to 2025, having 600 people. They also sold tickets for this year’s event, which featured bands, DJs, and had corporations and embassies attend.
2. Bắc Bộ Ao Làng translates to a kind of village series, which was piloted in November 2024. It was bootstrapped by Dai Viet and saw teams head to the north of Vietnam, to try and pilot the domestic league. The country has never had a domestic league structure, and they aim to try it again in late 2025.
3. A kids, community and clinic project will be launched in the Summer of 2025. The idea is to run summer camps for kids who are not at school, and to use that to be able to fund some work that they’ll do in provinces.

Harris said, “We will see what happens and if that Bắc Bộ Ao Làng league works and see what doesn’t work, and how we can fix things. We’d like to get social existing clubs like Danang and Saigon involved but it’s difficult with the costs that you incur with travelling.

We want to head out to get into Vietnamese communities and grow the sport across the across provinces and that’s real key to actually developing the sport and getting it eyes on the sport; having parents see the value of the of the sport as a team sport for the where the kids can learn social skills and regulate their emotions, not that we’re doing life skills or anything, but also get kids into the sport as well, to see where they can enjoy running around, making friends, staying fit, having a lot of fun. 

If we can get kids into the game at like 10-14 years old and have the structure that allows them to continue playing, to continue competing, and maybe get into that coach development pathway, or the referee development pathway, similar to what Pass It Back does, then that helps with the long term goals of rugby in Vietnam.”

The Dai Viet Rugby founder is aware that getting everyone on the same page and pulling in the same direction, with or without a federation, is a massive challenge.

“I have tried my best so far to try and join those dots. There’s a lot more work that I can do to continue that, but I definitely see that collaboration piece as so important. As you know, in other countries around the region where there are different agendas or different views on what is the right way to do it, it often involves egos.

I’m very conscious of that, and that it can lead to power vacuums, and it can lead to real issues for developing the sport. I think it’s really important that we always lead with the aspect of development. Ultimately, we could just organise the Hanoi 10s once a year, and it could be fine, a bit of fun, but actually it doesn’t help the growth of the sport.

That’s why we have the kids’ piece, the league piece, where we’re kind of catering to all the different stakeholders that are involved or want to be involved in rugby in Vietnam.”

He does mention there are some other development teams in the initial phases of being established, as well as the French international schools, which play rugby in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh.

“They’ve had rugby for a long time in both Hanoi and HCMC, but we’ve never really done anything to connect. There is also the Japanese-Vietnamese team. We’ve never really done anything to connect all the dots, and I think that is the place where we can have those regular playing opportunities. We can have opportunities for referees to get exposure and get game time. That’s the opportunity for coaches to learn where things are working or not working. It’s maybe an opportunity for us to do clinics on things where you’ll lack scrummaging experience.”

We’ve had 30-odd years of rugby, but mainly foreigner-focused rugby in Vietnam. And I think that we should change a little bit to collaborate more, so that we can do more together. 

That’s kind of front and centre of what we’re trying to do, but it’s not easy. Everyone’s doing voluntary work and doing community-based work. It’s a big task and it’s quite ambitious, but I think it’s important for the sport to actually grow.”

Hanoi 10s – A Vision to Grow Rugby in Vietnam

For the Hanoi 10s 2025 edition, Johnny and his small team decided to make it a more complete festival experience, and he admitted it added some extra stress

“We have issues generally around pitch availability, and the costs for pitches are astronomically high, and we didn’t have any sponsors or were not large enough to run a big competition like that. So we tried the ticketing aspect and made it into a festival experience to try and make it to try and make it worthwhile, which I think we will continue.

It’s always stressful running these things; anyone who’s ever run a competition, even if social rugby, will know that it’s stressful. We took a bit of a risk with bringing in bands, DJs and trying to do things a little bit bigger, but it thankfully paid off. We managed to break even on the competition, but we had other aspects, such as the match official courses and things that we do as part of our development strategy, that did not.

I think it was a risk worth taking, as we had to show a model that was interesting to all the different parties involved and to help us grow the competition and to help us do more. Overall,  we did pretty well in terms of executing the competition, and we did that with a team of three people.”

He added that they had some good positive feedback and wanted constructive feedback, as he admits not everything went to plan. He is also conscious of the need to tap into the local market for long-term growth.

“We need to try and grow and expand to try and make it relevant to Vietnamese people, Vietnamese parents and kids, but also corporations as well, to try and get them involved. We’re working this year on the relationships that we have with the Department of Sport to try and help us get access to better facilities.

A lot of the players and teams understood the context of who we are and where we’re working from, and why we’re doing it. I think it is important that we didn’t just hire an events team to run this one as it was organised by the people who will see their clubs and communities benefit from it. So it was really important for us to be a part of it and understand the purpose and our vision, and it was important for me to set the story around who we are and what we do and why we do it.”

We asked him what the one message is that he would want to send to potential touring teams who might be coming from further afield, or even potential sponsors who might be wanting to get involved in 2026 or beyond.

“I’d say for teams, come and experience a very different rugby culture, and it’ll be your cheapest tour that you ever go on. You’ll be able to play some good rugby, have a really good time, and also do some fantastic touristy stuff. 

For sponsors, and for people who want to get involved. I think if you care about the community, if you care about young people, and if you care about development work, then Hanoi 10s is the one for you, because we have a big vision to really grow the sport across not just players and kids, but also match officials and coaches as well.”

Ongoing Development Work – Dai Viet Rugby

Johnny has organised a number of World Rugby training courses focusing on developing and training local Vietnamese match officials. We asked him what Dai Viet had lined up in the future to continue their development work.

“I think refereeing is not very attractive for a lot of people. People don’t really care about becoming a referee, but I think for us, if we’re trying to really establish a foundation within a community among Vietnamese parents and Vietnamese kids, we have to have young Vietnamese people, women especially, that can referee and that know the game, and who can also coach.

So the big thing for us is wherever we have an event happening, we want to make sure that we’re doing some kind of training and education around it. That’s an immediate space where they can apply their learning and get some feedback on that as well.”

A week before the Hanoi 10s, they brought over a Match Official Educator from Hong Kong China Rugby, Aggie, who ran a course for 11 participants, and 8 of them were female.

Photo credit – Dai Viet Rugby – Match Official Educator from Hong Kong China Rugby, Aggie, who ran a course for 11 participants, and 8 of them were female.

“They were young Vietnamese women, and most of them had come through the Pass It Back program as well. So when we go to the Summer camps I mentioned, then we already have a little cadre of Vietnamese coaches who can run them, can referee them, can coach them.”

There is a plan for another potential referee workshop in Ho Chi Minh, depending on interest, and the next step is for those who have attended the match official course, is to get them onto the coaching course.

“Over the next 5-10 years, I would like to have a steady stream of people who are accredited as match officials and coaches. Hopefully, in 5-6 years, we’ll have a fully Vietnamese match official team at Hanoi 10s, and then for every other competition that we have in Vietnam, we can have a full group of Vietnamese match officials. That is important for laying a foundation.”

Johnny agreed that regional cooperation is important too, to help develop the game in Vietnam. 

“A really big piece of the puzzle is to link in with the ASEAN unions. And I have really good connections with the Philippines, Laos and Cambodia, maybe less so with Singapore or Thailand. 

I’m still in close contact with especially Laos and the Philippines to try and work out partnerships and collaboration, where we can kind of rely on their expertise for referees, or match educators and things like that. We’d like to do more to have more game time, especially across Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. I know that Laos and Cambodia struggle for game time as well, so I’d like to have that opportunity for those three countries, but let’s see.”

Pathway To Forming National Teams and Creating a Vietnam Rugby Federation

With the SEA Games including Sevens rugby for the first time since 2019 in Thailand at the end of the year, and global events like the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025, we asked if they in any way help raise awareness and visibility around rugby in Vietnam. 

Johnny Harris had also met with the General Secretary of the Vietnam Olympic Committee, Tran Van Manh, and there had been some media reports about Vietnam competing in the SEA Games Rugby 7s, but 2025 is far too soon.

Da Viet Rugby met the General Secretary of the Vietnam Olympic Committee, Tran Van Manh

“We had talked with the Olympic Committee in Vietnam about sending a team to the SEA Games, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. We need to grow the player database and see how willing the different actors in Vietnam are to push and support the sport.

The reality is that to have a national team would be quite a simple thing to do on paper, but having a team that would be competitive and safe, I think we’re maybe 3-4 years away from that. That’s why I would like to do some game time with Laos, for example, where it’s maybe a little bit more competitive than if we go straight into the SEA Games. 

The government in Vietnam is supportive of us driving this and developing rugby, and supportive of trying to figure out the best way to establish the national federation. The part of the reason why I want to grow the sport across Vietnamese parents and corporates is because I think organically, we’ll get to a space where we’ll get to a time and place where there are Vietnamese people who are experienced with governance, experience with business, and they like rugby, and they are the passionate about it, and they can then drive that process. 

It’s not going to be me who will drive the process of the formation of the federation. So that’s why I’m focusing on building the foundations to get to that level where there’s a platform for it. Based on experience and seeing things in other countries, if you establish a federation with nothing underneath it and no governing principles or anyone who knows or understands what we need, I think that it will just become more of a problem than a benefit.

I think that there’s more value in doing things from the ground up and getting to that space where it makes sense and organically happens. That’s what we’re working towards, and I know that the Olympic Committee in Vietnam is keen, wants to be involved and supports that.”

He has a clear vision of how things could play out, but national support, visibility and funding are all part of the puzzle. 

“It’s about getting to that space of having the resources to be able to actually fund a national team, fund training camps, fund a coach, fund game time. We don’t really have that right now, so we can bootstrap it, but it’s really difficult to do that. I think within five years, we’ll have something there. 

Ultimately, Vietnamese people don’t know and have no idea about the Lions tour, for example. They don’t know what it is. They don’t really care. How can we leverage those big rugby events to show what is possible in Vietnam? 

A really good example of that is Hong Kong. We’re never going to be the same as something as special as the Hong Kong Sevens, but there’s no reason why we can’t take parts of that and use them to contextualise it for Vietnam and see what works for us.

So the challenge is showing corporates what the opportunity is, and can we leverage that and show them, this is what you’ll be contributing towards. Here’s how you can benefit from it as well.”

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