Tashkent: The Indian U18 Girls Rugby team today, won silver at the Asia Rugby U18 Girls Rugby Sevens Championship 2021 held at Tashkent, Uzbekistan on 18th & 19th September, 2021. A total of five countries from across Asia including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, United Arab Emirates (UAE), India and the host- Uzbekistan vied for top honours at the championship. 

The Indian National U18 Girls Rugby team is supported by Societe Generale (financial partners & official bank), Government of Odisha and Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology- KIIT (high performance partners), BLK (match kit partner), Fast & Up (nutrition partner), BLADE India and Abhinav Bindra Targeting Performance (ABTP) as associate partner.

Speaking on the occasion, Rahul Bose - actor, director, philanthropist and a board member of Rugby India, said,  “ ‘This is a great moment for Indian Rugby. Both teams (UAE and India) scored three tries in the final. No disgrace losing like that. For our U18 girls team to perform as well as they did is all the more remarkable because they were 15 years old when the pandemic struck. They have never played a National tournament, leave alone an international championship. For them to come so far is a testament to their skill, grit and fire to make their country proud. Our thanks to the coaching and support staff. Only rugby players know how important they are in this sport. This is a new day for Indian Rugby. We go onward and upward from here!”

Vikram Ahuja,  President, Rugby India said, “Heartiest congratulations to our U18 Girls team, their performance has been sensational - they displayed courage, skill and mental toughness far beyond their years. This is the first step in a series of measures that Rugby India has taken and will continue to undertake to build all our teams into internationally competitive opponents. Our deepest thanks to the coaches, support staff and all our sponsors & partners for their commitment and kind support towards  enabling the team to achieve this milestone.”

The team was trained by coaches from South Africa namely Hendrik ‘Naas’ Botha (South Africa Rugby Legend & 4 times World Rugby player of the year), Ludwiche Van Deventer (Rugby Sevens Specialist), along with Indian Women’s Rugby Team captain Ms. Vahbiz Bharucha (mentor & official Physiotherapist for the Under 18 Girls rugby team).

India U18 Girls team’s performance in the Asian Championship:

Day 1 – Saturday, 18^th September 2021

Day 2 – Sunday, 19th September 2021