Easier to lead in Rugby Sevens: Vahbiz Bharucha

The Pune player feels it was a challenge to lead Rugby XVs India team in Singapore and it will be  easier to lead state team in Rugby Sevens nationals.

After leading India’s Women Rugby team in the first ever 15-a-side Rugby international tournament in Singapore, Vahbiz Bharucha is on her way to lead Maharashtra Women’s in the IRFU Senior National Rugby Sevens Championship 2018. The three-day tournament for both men and women will kick-start on Friday at Punjab University in Chandigarh. Kolhapur’s Sachin Khamkar will lead the Maharashtra men’s team in the tournament.

“It was a very nice experience in Singapore. It was the first time for us in that format (RugbyXV’s), but girls put up a brilliant fight in both the games we played there,” Vahbiz said.

A young inexperienced Indian side lost both those games and Vahbiz attributed it to lack of exposure. “Lack of experience and exposure cost us the games. We fought well but lost control of the game towards the last two minutes of the first half in both games,” she rued.

Though when contacted, Vahbiz wasn’t aware that she will be leading the state team. Though, she felt it would be easier to lead in Rugby 7 side. “We are used to Rugby Sevens and it will be easier to lead comparatively to Rugby XVs which was challenging for me as it was my first time. We will try to do well in nationals,” she said.

Post the senior nationals in Chandigarh, IRFU will be conducting a series of selection trials for the Indian National Women’s team to participate in the upcoming 2018 Jakarta Asian Games from June  25-27 at the same venue. The final list of players for the Asian Games have to be submitted to the Indian Olympic Association by June 30.

A total of 26 States and affiliated units will be participating and fighting to claim victory in this championship. The Maharashtra Men & Women’s Rugby teams are selected based on players performance in the Maharashtra Inter-District Rugby Championship 2018; for senior Men & Women held at RTM Nagpur University Ground on June 9-10. A total of 24 district teams from both the categories senior men and women participated in the tournament.

Post the State tournament, the Rugby Association of Maharashtra hosted a training camp for the Maharashtra State Men & Women Rugby Teams, at the Bombay Gymkhana grounds, Mumbai. Over 50 senior players across Maharashtra State in both the categories (Men & Women) had participated in the training and selection camp.

Vahbiz’s city mate from Pune Neha Pardeshi who was also with her in the Indian Women’s Rugby XVs team at the Asia Rugby Women’s Championship –Division 1 in Singapore is also in the 12-member squad.

Maharashtra Men’s Rugby team won Gold Medal in the Rugby Sevens' discipline at the 33rd  and 34th National Games of India held at Guwahati 2007 & Ranchi in 2011 respectively. Maharashtra Women’s Rugby team Won Silver and the Men’s Rugby team secured Bronze in the Rugby Sevens' discipline at the 35th National Games of India held in 2015, Kerala.  Apart from these, Maharashtra’s Under 14 Boys and Girls, both the teams secured Gold in the IRFU’s Sub- Junior National Touch –Rugby tournament 2015- 2016 held in Gujarat on January 2016.

Maharashtra Men Rugby Team
Sachin Khamkar (C, Akshay Vharambale, Shridhar Nigade, Prashant Kamble (all four from Kolhapur), Pradeep Jadhav, Sonu Singh (both from Mumbai Suburban), Mangesh Chavan, Govind Gupta, Sunil Chavan, Rehmuddin Shaikh, Bharat Rathod, Somnath Chauhan (all six from Mumbai City), Viks Chaurasiya (Coach)
Mumbai Suburban, Mahesh Shinde (Manager) Mumbai Suburban

Maharashtra Women Rugby Team
Vahbiz Bharucha (C), Neha Pardeshi, Surabhi Date, Pooja Bhale
(all four from Pune),  Neelam Patil (Kolhapur), Seema Ghadge, Ruchi Shetty (both from Mumbai Suburban), Rutuja Kirdat, Ankita Nikam (both from Satara), Payal Kanojia, Geeta Pawar, Chanchal Rajbhar (All three from Mumbai City),
Vitthal Pawar (Coach) Mumbai Suburban, Yogita Khade (Manager) Ratnagiri