India go down fighting to Thais

It was then that the transformation began to happen in our side.

After our game against Singapore, we had lost at least four key players through injury and were fielding our bench strength in those positions which had been vacated. But the reserves, as well as the shuffled players, got it together after the first 20 minutes. We began to sink our tackles in, out forwards began to get more organised. And most crucially, we began to believe we could give the Thais a run for their money.

We slowed the game down a bit, neverstopped tackling and even tried a few kicks and runs.

So, after every three-four minutes of good defensive rugby, we would crack and the Thais would put down another try. But we continued to bounce back.

The second half saw the Thais scoring only three-four times as against eight-nine sores in the first half. Add to that, the first-ever points put up by an Indian team in world rugby — two penalty kicks taken successfully by full-back Emil Vartazarian.

I had to come off close to the end of the first half. A thump on the same spot where I had an old rib injury and cist la vie. But sitting on the sidelines and watching the guys go down fighting in the second half more than made up for my depression.

Our next and final game is against China on October 30. If we recover from some fresh injuries suffered today, and play at near to full strength. We will beat the Chinese. I know this sounds far fetched, but we’ve seen them play and they are very beatable.

The second game tonight was Sri Lankaversus Malaysia. The Lankans shut the Malaysians 45-3. Keep your eyes open for the results of the Pool B final, Sri Lanka versus Singapore. That’s going to be humdinger.