While the Vietnam Swans are 100 per cent focussed on the coming weekend when we play the Hong Kong Dragons, we’re equally focussed on the fact that it’s a long weekend and that the Grand Final is just a month away.

Now we can throw into the mix an email from the Lao Elephants. Marty Sharples says that his Elephants are very keen to come over the border to Hanoi for a match. But they would like to do so on the weekend of 24 November – a long weekend in Laos. However, this is just one week after we play the Thailand Tigers.

This is not such good news for the Saigon boys who are unlikely to make two flights to Hanoi on consecutive weekends. However, the preliminary response from Hanoi has been very encouraging.

The Elephants emailed back today to say that they will look again at coming the weekend before for a tri nations tournament with Thailand.

The Red Sherrin in Communist Vietnam is big.