India continue progress by beating Pakistan

It took them six long years and three Asian meets but, in the end, history was created for Indian rugby when the national team won its first...

It took them six long years and three Asian meets but, in the end, history was created for Indian rugby when the national team won its first match ever at the Asian Rugby Football Tournament ARFT 2004, thrashing Pakistan 56-3.

Incidentally, that match, in Hong Kong on Saturday, was exactly a year after India had beaten Pakistan 52-15 in the Provincial Cup championship in Colombo.

And according to former captain Chaitanya Sinh, the Hong Kong match had all the trappings of any Indo-Pak sporting encounter, anywhere 8212; the pressure to win, the crowds, the butterflies in the stomach. 8216;8216;The players were a little tense before the match for two reasons 8212; we had never before played a Test match with a team ranked lower than us, and secondly, it was against Pakistan,8217;8217; Sinh told The Indian Express from Hong Kong.

He added: 8216;8216;As this was Pakistan8217;s Test debut tournament we knew that for it to be a real victory we would need to totally dominate the game 8212; just winning wasn8217;t enough. Eventually we were relatively staisfied with the 56-3 final scoreline.8217;8217;

Sinh adds with evident pleasure that there was plenty of support for our game. 8216;8216;Obviously there were spectators from both countries cheering but what was interesting to note was the interest the other countries like Japan, Singapore took in the match.8217;8217;

Whatever rivalry existed on the pitch was forgotten after the match as the teams got togetherm, swapped photographs and shared a few drinks. 8216;8216;The relationship between the players was excellent. We relaxed, spoke about the coming tournaments and the importance of continuing rugby ties between the 2 countries. The level of comfort and friendship was amazing,8217;8217; says Sinh.

nbsp;	KANGAROO COURTS

		nbsp;	8226; The Indian team have a novel method of motivation and etam-building. After returning to the team hotel each day, they would hold 8216;Kangaroo Court8217; sessions with team members 8216;brought up8217; on various 8216;charges8217;. 8216;8216;Each defendant is provided with a defence counsel coach Willie Hetaraka who pleads with the judge Sinh while being questioned by the team prosecutor Simon Patel,8217;8217; informs Sinh. The judge then passes his verdict and sentence. The type of charges vary from the 8216;8216;smelliest8217;8217; to the shortest for off-the-field offences to the worst pass, kick or worst mistake for on-field offences.	nbsp;

As for Team India, ARFT 2004 was a slight letdown, feels Sinh. He explains: 8216;8216;Malaysia pulled out and deprived us of a third game as well as a chance to beat a higher-ranked team. However, we showed in this tournament that India can compete with the top-rung Asian teams. Our game against China was extremely close in the 1st half 19-15 and they went on to win the pool by thrashing Sri Lanka.8217;8217;

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Sinh, on the way to hanging up his boots, believes that the next step for Indian rugby should be to keep the core of the present team together and do well in the quadrangulars in May-June next year, to be contested by India, Guam, Kazakhstan, Malaysia.

8216;8216;The drought has finally ended and a new chapter of Indian rugby will be written in the coming years. I do sympathise with Pakistan as they are today where we were in 1999. They have just been exposed to Interntional rugby and it will take them some time to become competitive. We both have a very long way to go and hopefully sub-continental rugby can catch on and become a fan-favourite in the next few years.8217;8217;