The Indian Women’s Rugby team will compete in the Asia Rugby Sevens Trophy to be held in Brunei on the 20th & 21st October 2018.
A total of ten countries from across Asia including Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos, Guam, Philippines, Pakistan, Nepal, Uzbekistan, India and hosts Brunei will vie for top honours at the Asia Rugby Sevens Trophy 2018.
Winner of this tournament will secure a spot in the Asia Rugby Women’s Sevens Series, which will feature three legs and will be played in 2019.
The Indian Women’s team is supported by Societe Generale, the financial partner of Rugby India and is participating under the aegis of the Indian Rugby Football Union (IRFU), the governing body for the sport of Rugby in India.
Speaking on the occasion Mr. Mahesh Mathai, Secretary General, Rugby India said, “Our Indian Women’s team has made us proud on a number of occasions with their brilliant performances at the Asian level.
The current team comprises of a good mix of the young as well as the senior experienced girls. With their excellent performances last year, we are slowly seeing a lot of the Under 18 girls coming through and making their mark at the senior level.
Their performances have inspired so many girls and women to adopt the game. We feel our girls have the potential to achieve great milestones in the future and I wish them the very best for this tournament.”
The players shortlisted to join the Indian National Training Camp were selected during the Societe Generale Senior & Junior National Rugby Sevens Championships, held in Chandigarh and Madurai in June and July 2018 respectively.
Post the Senior and Junior Nationals, Indian Women’s National Pre – camp was held in Mayurbhanj, Odisha in September. The final training & selection camp was held at the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar Odisha from 1st October to 18th October 2018.
Women’s Rugby In India:
Women’s Rugby in India has really exploded with the number of women participants increasing every year. The Get into Rugby program has led to an increase in female participants over the years 2016-18, respectively (42034) in 2016, (67062) in 2017 and (54342) till September 2018. With the support of World Rugby, Asia Rugby and Societe Generale, Rugby India has been instrumental in making Rugby a popular sport with Women.
Rugby India in conjunction with its affiliated State Rugby Associations is hosting more than 14 domestic national level tournaments for girls and women annually which is helping give Indian women and girls a meaningful pathway to India’s national team and is helping expand the Women’s domestic season as well.
Rugby India is also ready to host the Asia Rugby U18 Girls 2018 tournament from 26th-28th October 2018 in Bhubaneswar, India, giving the Indian fan a chance to view great International Rugby.
Asia 1 Million India:
India has effectively used The Asia 1 Million to boost it’s already effective efforts to increase the spread of rugby to women. In a Recent A1M Project run by Rugby India, “project 50 K it is very encouraging to see that over 45% of the total outreach were women and girls.
India will head pool B and they will play Pakistan, Nepal, The Philippines and Uzbekistan in the pool stages.
The following 12 players are selected from across India to represent the nation at the Asia Rugby Women’s Sevens Trophy in Brunei.
Maharashtra
- Vahbiz Bharucha (Captain)
- Neha Pardeshi
New Delhi
- Priya Bansal
- Namita Bhoj
- Neha S
Odisha
- Hupi Majhi
- Meerarani Hembram
- Bhagyalaxmi Barik
- Sumitra Nayak
Bihar
- Kavita Kumari
- Sweety Kumari
West Bengal
- Sandhya Rai
Coach- Ludwiche Van Deventer from South Africa
Asst. Coach- Rehmuddin Shaikh
Physio- Shabrez Mukaddam
Asia Rugby Sevens Trophy Fixtures and results
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