India were proud hosts of the Mumbai Rugby Sevens, the third-ranked event in the HSBC Asian Sevens Series, which ended on Sunday. It’s ironical, thus, that the national rugby team has not had a full-time coach since the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
India made its rugby debut this year at the Asian Sevens Series. The team had a preparatory camp two weeks before the event, but without a coach. “We requested the Japan Rugby Football Union (JRFU) to send a coach to train us for the event,” Rohaan Sethna, India’s captain said.
Barely 10 days before the tournament, a JRFU coach Joe Takahama flew down to assist the Indian team. He is now ready to go back to Japan. “A foreign coach can’t come down in 10 days and weave his magic,” said Sethna. “He (Joe) helped us a bit and gave us a new structure and style of playing. But it needs to be done over a period of time.”
Interestingly, the Indian rugby team did have a coach (Greg Davis) prior to the CWG in Delhi. Apparently, the government stopped funding the sport and since then the team has had no support staff.
Sethna said, “The government was only sponsoring us because we (India) were hosting the 2010 CWG and rugby was part of the Games. Now we have lesser tournaments, very little money and fewer camps.”
Takahama felt India had plenty of rugby talent, including the right built for the sport. “The players are inexperienced, especially in the Sevens, and hence a coach is an absolute necessity,” he said. Sethna believed India needed a coach over a long period of time to match teams such as Hong Kong, Japan and China. “Till the CWG, the government gave us everything we needed. Once the tournament was over, it was all downhill. It just doesn’t work that way,” he said.
