Rugby146;s successful try

November could be a watershed month for Indian rugby, good enough for words like 8216;8216;first-ever8217;8217; and 8216;8216;unique...

November could be a watershed month for Indian rugby, good enough for words like 8216;8216;first-ever8217;8217; and 8216;8216;unique8217;8217; to be used in association. It8217;s the reason why Pramod Khanna and his colleagues at the Indian Rugby Football Union IRFU can8217;t stop smiling.

Consider this:

A long-awaited international win at the Asia Rugby Football Tournament ARFT in Hong Kong, a team strengthened with international imports that stuck to gameplans, a comprehensive sponsorship deal, a new captain, and the icing on the cake 8212; team jerseys designed by Tarun Tahiliani.

Add to this the growing employee base development officers/coaches working to consolidate and nurture the grassroots, and you can figure out that the news is good.

In the middle of all this, coach Willie Hetaraka says he8217;s 8216;8216;pleased8217;8217; with his team8217;s performance. Speaking from New Zealand, where he8217;s taking a break after the ARFT, Hetaraka told The Sunday Express that things went to plan. 8216;8216;We may have lost one game to China and won against Pakistan, but it was a good hit out for the boys. This tournament was about teaching them good game plans and structures and sticking to it.8217;8217;

Analysing India8217;s opener against China ranked 44, Hetaraka says: 8216;8216;China was very close up to half time, which was quite pleasing. We had one man sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes straight after half-time for infringing at the ruck. He was a loose forward, this cost us three tries as it is very difficult to defend without a loose forward.8217;8217;

Stressing that the team was learning quickly and improving on mistakes, Hetaraka points to the Pakistan game. 8216;8216;Pakistan was a good game plan under true Test match conditions. The whole thing is to teach Indian rugby players to play to a set pattern, which they did. I am satisfied with the result but we certainly can improve. The gameplan and structure were good,8217;8217; he says.

One key reason why Pramod Khanna is bullish on the future of Indian rugby is the Hutch sponsorship, as the funds give scope for a long-term development plan.8216;8216;The IRFU already has on its payroll a number of development officers and coaches all over India. Hetaraka has held a Smart Safety Course in September for about 30 coaches from all over India at the Army facility in Ahmednagar8217;8217;, Khanna said.