All You Need To Know About Indian Rugby Team

Indian Rugby team

Rugby union or also known as rugby is a team sport which was originated in the 19th century in England. It is a game where the players need to run with a ball in their hand. It has two teams with 15 players with an oval-shaped ball in a rectangular field with an H – shaped goal post. This sport is not confined to England only. It is also played by many countries. This game is also popular and played in India. In this article, we get a brief idea about our Indian Rugby Team.

Indian Rugby team

The Indian Rugby team also was known as India national rugby union team is division 3 champions of the Asian 5 Nation. Our Indian rugby team plays in Fatorda stadium with a capacity of 25000. India does not have a proper stadium for rugby. The team practices in the college or university compounds. Mitsutake Hagimoto is the coach of the Indian team. The Indian Team wears a dark blue and black jersey since 2011. They used to wear light blue and white in the year 1998 to 2010. The shirts and socks are dark blue and the shorts are black in color at present.

It played its first international against Singapore on 26th October 1998 with Singapore scoring 85 and India scoring 0 in it. It was the largest defeat. Their largest win was against Pakistan on 14th June 2008 with a score of 92-0. It does not make an appearance for the World Cup as they tried twice for 2007 rugby world cup and 2011 rugby world cup in the year 2005 and 2008 respectively. In 2001 the Indian rugby team was admitted to IRB but it took 3 years for them to prove themselves with their greatest win against Pakistan with a score of 53-0 in the Asian Biennial Tournament.

Indian Rugby Team against Pakistan

They did not qualify for the 2007 World Cup because of their loss to Kazakhstan with a score of 22-36 and they were out of the tournament. They also disappointed when they were playing against Guam with a tie of 8-8. But they were successful in beating Malaysia and finished second in their group team with a score of 48-12. But at last the team were out and the top teams were qualified. The Indian team has ten wins, one tie and twenty-four losses as their current records.

The Indian Rugby team also took part in the Asia Rugby Championship, which was held within the Asia Rugby region. It was a rugby union competition. India got the 3rd place in the second division and was not qualified after participating in the 2008 Asian Five Nation. After that in 2009 Asian Five Nation India again finished in 3rd place in the second division. In 2010 Asian Five Nation, India lost to the Philippines with a score of 34- 12 in the finals in First Division and was not promoted after that.

The Indian Rugby team got promotion in the year 2012 from third to second Division after winning the third division tournament. But in the year 2013, they got the fourth position in the second division tournament and they got the third division once again. The Division 3 tournament was divided into two parts east and west competition in the year 2014 was India got the fourth position in the west tournament. In 2015 the Division 3 tournament was divided into three competitions east, west and central with three teams.

India played in a central tournament with two other teams Uzbekistan and Pakistan. Pakistan quits at first in the central tournament so the remaining team Uzbekistan and India played against each other in the central tournament. As both teams played well and gained their victories but India was declared as a winner in this tournament. Again in 2016, the third division tournament was again divided in four this time with east, west, central and west-central. Here India was competing against Pakistan in the west-central bracket.

In the year 1852 India played its first match at CFC in Kolkata on Christmas day. England Ireland, Scotland, and Wales took part in it along with India. They also played in Singapore against Singapore and lost with a score of 85-0. After that, the Indian Rugby Team was admitted to the IRB that is the International Rugby Board in 2001 and came into existence because before that it did not come into existence until 1998. They visited the UK in 2003 and they played from 3 sides in the Midlands and got a great defeat from the Leicester Tiger XV at Welford Road.

The Indian Rugby Team in Asian Five Nation Division 3 consists of the following members:

  • Antony Kenny
  • Suresh Sajwan
  • Surinder Singh
  • Jagga Singh
  • Nathan Kameta
  • Kamaldeep Dagar
  • Hrishikesh Penedes
  • Gautam Dagar
  • Tuiweli Serukalou
  • Naseer Hussain (he is also the captain of the team)
  • Vikas Khairi
  • Rohit Singh
  • Pritam Roy
  • Rohit Dagar
  • Rohan Seetha

The substitutes of the team are as follows:

  • Paramjit Singh
  • Prince Khairi
  • Navdeep Singh Lalri
  • Shokender Singh
  • Avinash Sinde
  • Armen Makarian
  • Bikas Jena
  • Samser Sirvan
  • Sivasankar Baluleyan Remadevi

So the above information is regarding the Indian Rugby Team. The overall performance of the team as we can see is not satisfactory. Rather it is disappointing. The team should be provided with all the possible facilities along with a practice field and proper training so that they can get an opportunity to establish themselves as a team and give their best in all the national and international tournaments and can make up to the World cup finals.

The Indian government should also provide some facilities to the Indian Rugby Team. The people of India should also encourage these sports like other sports such as cricket, football. This game should also get a proper platform that it deserves. And the youngsters should be encouraged to take this as sports and not as a game. It is quite disappointing for India that the Indian Rugby Team has not gained a proper success in the Rugby game.

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