India national rugby union team
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| Union | Indian Rugby-Football Union | |||||||||||||||||
| Coach |  Usaia Biumaiwai |
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| First international | ||||||||||||||||||
| Singapore 85 - 0 India (1998-10-26) |
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| Largest win | ||||||||||||||||||
| Pakistan 3 - 56 India (2004-10-30) |
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| Worst defeat | ||||||||||||||||||
| Arabian Gulf 97 - 3 India (2001-04-27) |
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The Indian Rugby Team is ranked 84th in the world( as of Feb 21 IRB Rankings), out of 95 teams. Their captain is Nasser Hussain, nicknamed "Nino", and their coach is Usaia Biumaiwai from Fiji. There are, in total, 17,200 registered rugby players in India. They were admitted to the IRB in 2001, but it took three years before India managed to win a match - beating Pakistan 56-3 in the third tier competition of the Asian Biennial tournament.
In 2005, they started their attempt to qualify for the 2007 Rugby World Cup, but a 22-36 loss to Kazakhstan sent them out of the running for that tournament. They also disappointed with an 8-8 tie in Guam, but still finished second in their group of four teams thanks to beating Malaysia 48-12 - a massive improvement, as only two years earlier Malaysia had beaten them 20-13 in a friendly. However, as only the top team in the group qualified for the next stage, India were out. Their current record in IRB-recognised internationals is two wins, one tie, and fourteen losses.
Pramod Khanna, the IRFU President, has launched a campaign to inform Indians about Rugby, and is vying away from the elitist attitude of the past. As well as encouraging growth of rugby teams in urban areas, he is going out to the Indian villages. With a near population of 1 Billion, 50 strong men should easily be found who after training and experince can provide a teams good enough one day to compete with Japan, and perhaps after a couple of decades the main Rugby Countries.
Khanna ( brother of actor Vinod Khanna) says that "Rugby is an inexpensive game as you only need a ball and a ground to run around in. It is a great spectator sport and a lot of people initially look at the sport as a form of entertainment but end up taking it up professionally." As it took India 75 years to become a top Cricket team, India has time to build itself.Just like other sports, in rugby too a lot will depend on support coming from various quarters like the government and sponsors. The Indian Government needs to wake up to helping sports on a professional level.
With Rugby 7s being a discipline at the Commonwealth Games 2010 in Delhi, it should be a wake-up call for the government. What, then, is the need of the hour.We need dedicated rugby grounds all over India and this can easily be provided by the government through SAI.
The army has shown a lot of interest in the sport and has taken it up seriously. Just two years after the game was introduced, there are three to four players from the army in the national team. There are also three players from the police. Explains Khanna, We have a development programme in place for the Indian Army, and the army has been supportive.
Sponsor support has also been good. IRFU has recently tied up with KAPPA as the kitting sponsor to the Indian team.
The International Rugby Board is viewing India and China as potential rugby playing nations. The IRFU has been promoting touch rugby in over 100 schools in India and recently an Inter-school tournament held at the Bombay Gymkhana attracted over 14 schools and over 400 kids. Add to this, the junior level tournaments which are organised on a regular basis. Khanna informs that they have also approached SGFI (Schools Federation) for inducting the game in school curriculum and may be approved soon. A few years ago, it was only Mumbai and Kolkata, and that too a few clubs in these cities, that played rugby. Rugby is now being played in Chennai, Bangalore, Pondicherry, Bhubaneshwar, Manipur, Assam, Delhi, Haryana, J&K (Srinagar), Pune and several of the army nodes like Ahmednagar, Bangalore and Ambala.
The Indians are also receiving support from BARA a British based Rugby organisation helping to encourage Rugby amongst the Indian and Pakistanni communities. This is being spearheaded by Britain'f first Asian player, Ikram Bhutt and Jug Johal.
A new Rugby kit is coming out for India this year.
[edit] Current squad
[edit] Forwards
- Ashwin Reddy (Cambridge University)
- Manoj Bahl (Leicester Vipers)
Indian Team – Match Results
RWC 2007 Qualifiers
Date Game Venue Result
18th June, 2005 Guam vs India Guam 08-08
11th June, 2005 India vs Malaysia Mumbai 48-12
05th June, 2005 India vs Kazakhstan Mumbai 22-36
Asian Championships 2004 – Hong Kong
Date Game Venue Result
30th Oct, 2004 Pakistan vs India Hong Kong 03-56
27th Oct, 2004 China vs India Hong Kong 50-15
Triangular Tournament
Date Game Venue Result
26th June, 2004 Thailand vs India Bangkok 86-15
22nd June, 2004 India vs Sri Lanka Mumbai 17-54
Quadrangular Tournament
Date Game Venue Result
28th June, 2003 India vs Chinese Taipei Calcutta 10-61
24th June, 2003 Malaysia vs India Singapore 20-13
21st June, 2003 Singapore vs India Singapore 71-0
Asian Championships 2002 – Bangkok
Date Game Venue Result
20th Nov, 2002 Sri Lanka vs India Bangkok 54-24
18th Nov, 2002 Kazakhstan vs India Bangkok 89-10
16th Nov, 2002 Thailand vs India Bangkok 67-10
RWC 2003 Qualifiers
Date Game Venue Result
28th April, 2001 Arabian Gulf vs India Bahrain 97-03
25th April, 2001 Kazakhstan vs India Bahrain 51-09
Asian Championships 1998 – Singapore
Date Game Venue Result
30th Oct, 1998 China vs India Singapore 42-13
28th Oct, 1998 Thailand vs India Singapore 90-06
26th Oct, 1998 Singapore vs India Singapore 85-0
[edit] External links
- The Official Website of Indian Rugby
- IRB World Rankings
- Indian Rugby Internationals
- 2007 Rugby World Cup qualifying procedures
- 2007 Rugby World Cup results
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