India is set to compete in the Rugby Sevens Under-18 girls event at the Paris World Games on July 8-9. The team will leave for Paris on July 6 from Mumbai and consist of 12 players along with coach Nasser Hussain, who is also the captain of the Indian men’s national team.
“We recently held the junior national championship for boys and girls, which was the Under-18 category in Chennai and that was the platform for selection for players to join the training camp for this selection,” said Hussain. “We had 25 girls that had come for the training camp and we just announced the 12 names that will represent the country at the Paris World Games this weekend.”
The team has five girls from Odisha and five from Bengal. However, Hussain feels that it is still a good mix of players despite a majority of them belonging to two states. “We have one [player] from Delhi and one from Maharashtra as well. They all come from different backgrounds and majority of them are from tribal areas. This is the second tournament India is going to participate in the Under-18 category.”
This team had participated in the inaugural Asian Under-18 Girls Rugby Sevens Championship in the UAE and finished third, bagging the bronze medal. However, Paris will be a different ball game, feels Hussain.
“Seven teams are participating for now,” he said. “But they are going to add few more teams. The official draw will be announced in a couple of days. From Asia it is only UAE and us. Hong Kong, who won the Asian Under-18 tournament, backed out due to undisclosed reasons. It will be a good learning curve and exposure for the girls. Five girls who had already played in Dubai are in the current squad.”
Captain Sumitra Nayak said that the team wants only a gold medal at the Paris World Games. “We will win because we have trained really hard,” she said. “We have learnt a lot and we will utilise it in the games that we play and win gold.”
However, the team’s main aim is to prepare for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games qualifiers in December. “We have the Under-17 qualifiers for the Youth Olympic Games in Dubai and we already confirmed our participation in both boys and girls,” said Hussain. “France will be a stepping stone for us because we will get extra exposure and also play with stronger teams.”