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Rugby India -october 2009
(Greg Davey)
Commonwealth Games 2010 Rugby 7s Update
Days till Kick Off – 342
Scotland Visits Delhi
One of the more exciting things with Rugby in India this last few weeks has been the Scotland Sevens Development squad training in Delhi for a week and playing a set of sevens matches against the Rugby India CWG Rugby Sevens Training squad. The Scots were on an acclimatising tour in preparation for WCG 2010 as well as preparing for the Singapore Sevens and the upcoming World Series Sevens opener in Dubai in early December.
They showed their class as one of the current top 5 sevens teams in the world and comfortably cruised through the 3 games and it was obvious they were trying new combinations and moves throughout. However to the Indian teams merit they put on a good show in the last game and looked like breaching the Scots defensive line on numerous occasions.
These games would have given the Indian boys a confidence lift going into their 4 week Asian Sevens series tour.
CWG Core Probable Asian Tour
The national squad will showcase their performance at prestigious tournaments like Asian 7s Circuit, Brunei (24th October – 25th October 2009); Asian 7s Circuit, Borneo (31st October- 1st November 2009); and Singapore Cricket Club 7s (7th – 8th November 2009) and the Cobra 10s (14th – 15th November).
The 16 member team will be headed by Captain Nasser Hussain. The team includes Charanjit Singh, Sukhdeep Singh, Surinder Singh, Hemanth Kumar, Dhananjay Kumar Prasad, Rohit Singh Sivach, Amit Lochab, Gautam Dagar, Rohaan Sethna, Sandeep Singh, Pritom Roy, Thimmaiah Madanda, Deepak Dagar, Alagesan Sendil Kumar and Venkatesan Arul.
Nasser Hussain, Captain of the Indian National Rugby Team stated, “It has been a hectic schedule for the team and we have played some of the top class teams in last few months. This has definitely given us the confidence to perform at the highest level. We look forward to these series of events and hope to give the Rugby enthusiast in the country a chance to cheer for.”
The squad has been under an exhausting training schedule at Balewadi, Pune preparing for these tournaments in preparation for the upcoming Commonwealth Games 2010 in New Delhi. The team has also played few exhibition matches recently against the Scotland team in New Delhi.
The Indian squad will leave for Malaysia on 22nd October 2009 under the expert guidance of the four member team including coaches Hendre Marnitz and Norman Laker, the team physiotherapist Sandeep Choudhari, Manas Kumar Jena, the team manager and analyst Kim Davey.
First Success in Asian Sevens Series
Well The Rugby Sevens squad went into the Shanghai sevens as the big underdogs and in many ways on the first day of the tournament we probably looked and performed like it as well. Late arrival of Kit and a somewhat slow start saw the team on the end of some big scores early on day one however they did fight back and lost a close game towards the end of the day vs Thailand.
However day 2 -new kit and a new attitude saw a complete change with the boys actually beating Singapore 31 – 0 - a first for an Indian team in the Asian Sevens Series before slumping in a tired performance to Sri Lanka in its last match of the tournament. Overall 8th position in its first real Asian outing was a positive result.
CWG Probable’s gain approval for another South African Training Camp
At a recent meeting in Delhi with the CWG teams people Rugby India was approved another visit to South Africa to train at Stellenbosch University in it s preparation for next year’s tournaments. The 5 week SA camp will be a huge bonus for the boys in their build up to the A5N and various Sevens tournaments throughout the year in its preparation to take on New Zealand in the first game at the CWG. They will surely need it as it can be assured New Zealand will have all its big guns firing for a tournament it has never lost and considers it owns!
Rugby at the Olympics
Well we are in. Rugby Sevens will be played at the Olympics for the first time at the 2016 Games in Rio di janeiro.
Many people have asked the editor if India could ever qualify for the Olympics. Certainly the Olympics are the goal of nearly every elite sportsman however let’s keep our feet on the ground. The first aim for rugby India is it must be to be competitive in Asia and from there on the wider World circuit on a regular. Until this happens any thoughts of Olympic participation for our Men are a long way off.
For our women though it may be an easier ride, as there is much more equality in the skill of women players around the world with only 2 -3 major players on the women’s circuit so the field is much more balanced and with the Athleticism shown to date in our “putting our feet in the water” the National Women’s team, with the right preparation - Foreign exposure and foreign coaching then they could just be a long shot for Olympic Games qualification in 2016
First Tournaments Played in Delhi - All India Womens 10s
Women don’t play rugby in India? Yes - the editor still get these comments!
Well, had those people been in Delhi for the recent All India Women’s 10s they would have witnessed some great rugby from the top teams and some fearsome clashes that made this writers hair stand up.
With the number of women playing the game in India now topping the 500 mark it was fantastic to see the skill level of the women take a big step up from the Women’s 7s played earlier in the year.
Perennial favourite Pune were toppled in a match for the first time - beaten by the faster and more mobile Jungle Crows in what turned out to be a tough final 24 -7.
The Great thing for Rugby in India is that the 20 women selected for the National squad training camp are from 6 states and will be under Coach Usaia’s eyes while they prepare for the Kota Kinabalu sevens in Malaysia at the end of the October. Just the second International exposure for our Women’s National Team!
With the mix of speed (JC) and strength and bulk (Pune) combined with some very talented women from the South Zone Women’s Rugby in India could prove bit of a dark horse on the international scene in the upcoming years. Expect a top 6 finish at next year’s Asian Champs!
Upcoming Callaghan Cup
All set to go for this month Callaghan Cup as the club teams ranked next behind the top 12 in India will take each other on in the quickly developing rugby centre of Bhubaneswar in Orissa from the 24th – 29th October. Teams will be fighting for Promotion to the India Premier club league and keeping out of the bottom 3 relegation zone back to the regional tournament.
This year’s favourites will have to be the East Zone Teams of Jungle Crows and the Police teams.
An unfortunate thing about this tournament is that several teams have withdrawn at very late notice with little regard for Rugby in India and this does leave a bad taste in the mouth of the organisers particularly when we had numerous other teams busting to enter. The positive from this is that with those teams withdrawing it will open up positions for other clubs next year
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