Rugby’s successful try

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 — 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 he’s ‘‘pleased’’ with his team’s performance. Speaking from New Zealand, where he’s taking a break after the ARFT, Hetaraka told The Sunday Express that things went to plan. ‘‘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.’’

Analysing India’s opener against China (ranked 44), Hetaraka says: ‘‘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.’’

Stressing that the team was learning quickly and improving on mistakes, Hetaraka points to the Pakistan game. ‘‘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,’’ 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.‘‘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 Ahmednagar’’, Khanna said.