Move over basketball, hockey, football and cricket, folks! Bengaluru girls are focusing on a new sport now. Rugby! They confess that it’s different, more physical, all-consuming and all-encompassing. It is believed to be one of the fastest growing sports in India, and hopes to receive a big boost. We speak to the Karnataka Rugby Team Captain Sindhoor Murthy and the city coach on the rise of this tough sport in the city, and the plans ahead.
With Sindhoor Murthy as the State Captain, the other girls in the team include Shilpa, Vaishnavi, Manjushree, Preethi, Chaya, Sneha, Malavika, Mandhara, Chandhana, Deethika, Tejaswini and Jyothi. Eighteen-year old Sindhoor shares, “Most of the girls are from Ammani College and some of them are from BMS College, Sindhi College and CMR College in Bengaluru. I’m a commerce graduate student. I was introduced to rugby only recently. Infact, it’s been only five months, since I’ve started playing the sport seriously. I came to know that there were selections going on for a State Rugby team, so some girls from our college tried our luck. We practiced for a few days and were selected. Our coach made me the captain after a stringent selection process. We haven’t played many matches so far. I played my first match in Mumbai last year. But we’re very serious about our practice sessions. We usually begin our practice at 6.30 am and play till 11 am and in the evenings after college we continue our practice sessions from 5 pm to 8 pm. We practice at City Central Ground in the university campus in Majestic.”
Coach Thejas N says, “The Karnataka Rugby girls team was formed last year. We had asked Physical Education department of some city colleges to send girls for try outs especially from sports backgrounds. After a few rounds, we selected the final 13 players for the All India Juniors Rugby Sevens Tournament that was held at Mumbai last year. They had to practice with the Boys U 18 team as there were no rugby girls in the Karnataka team to play matches. The girls managed to play with boys in practice matches and had to face the Junior Tournament. In the Group League, they had stiff competition with seasoned teams like and Odisha.
They lost in the group stages and managed to win a couple of matches. We would like to take this forward to other colleges and get more players to build the team and also the sport.”
Sindhoor adds on the challenges and future plans, “We didn’t get any aid from the government or private entities, as the KRFU Karnataka Rugby Football Union is still not affiliated to KOA Karnataka Olympic Association. I like rugby as it is a mix of football and requires a lot of energy, strength and stamina. It also requires a lot of coordination and ball passing techniques. It is a new sport for us, yet it is a lot of fun. We do a lot of running and warm-ups and drink lots of water. We would like to play for India soon.”
