History was made on Saturday 2 June with India’s women playing in their first-ever international test.
One of three teams in this year’s Asia Rugby Women’s Championship Division I, India suffered a 30-5 defeat to hosts Singapore.
But in their first showing their progression and potential shone through at Queenstown Stadium.
Neha Pardeshi who captained the India 7s team has been one of the reasons this Indian side has seen a lot of global media coverage recently and she spoke to Asia Rugby after the match.
“I am happy that we scored, but sad that we lost,” said Pardeshi.
“It is a huge step for us to have played in this historic match and I am proud to have been a part of it. Indian women play with all our hearts.
We also have our Fearless leader captain Vahbiz Bharucha to thank,
We need to continue to follow our systems for our next match against the Philippine as we lacked that a little bit against Singapore.
“Nasser (Hussain) has been the best coach, he has patience, his stratrgy and understanding of the game and planning is just great and we are lucky to have him.”
Despite being unranked and playing a side ranked 34th in the World Rugby women’s rankings, India did not look out of place and fought until the very end.
The first 30 minutes were fiercely contested and the hosts only broke the deadlock after some impressive defence from the Indian side.
Singapore broke away in the second forty minutes but there was still time for Pardeshi to make another piece of history scoring India’s first-ever international try.
“It’s amazing,” said Pardeshi
