Every time Willie Hetaraka wondered about his role in putting this unfancied nation on rugby’s world map, he’d dream of how there’d be potentially one billion people backing his team of 15 believers.On a breezy Saturday afternoon at the Bombay Gymkhana, that dream came a fraction closer as underdogs India registered their first-ever Test win at home by beating higher-ranked Malaysia 48-12 in a World Cup qualifier. It was a convincing win for an Indian team that has too long fallen to the sucker punch, a victim of last-minute collapses and disorganisation.Not today. Denied more than the odd-victory for the seven long years since their first international match in 1998, and dismissed as puny pushovers from a big land, India were waiting to prove a point. And sensing a disorganised opposition, they decided to go all the way this time.As star kicker Emil Vartazarian put it, ‘‘The boys were very hungry, they had waited too long.’’No one was hungrier, no one more summed up the spirit than than centre Amarveer Singh Ladhar, who ran the sprint of his fledgling rugby career down the left flank before touching down, breathless and panting.India now travel to Guam to take on the latter in their backyard on June 18 and a victory away from home would improve their chances of making it to the next stage of the qualifiers.India have now won two out of four Tests in the past two years, a far better stat than the 15 losses in the five preceding seasons. And captain Nasser Hussain believes that this percentage can only get better with time.And as the boys danced at the final whistle, Hetaraka, whose imaginative talks and punishing workouts have driven this team this far, hummed the team song. ‘I believe I can fly.’Today they believed. And they flew.ResultsIndia 48 (Tries: Amarveer Singh Ladhar (2), Ganesh Sawant, Ajay Subherwal, Manmandir Samra, Hrishikesh Pendse and M Faizalabhoy; Conversions: Emil Vartazarian (4), Penalty Emil Vartazarian) beat Malaysia 12 (Tries: Mohd Azdar (2), Conversions: Nasarudin).
