The first women’s rugby team to represent India internationally gets down to business
As she takes the forward position on the field, her brow glistening with sweat and mud streaking her limbs, few would guess Shweta Prachande’s ambition in life—to excel as a Bharatnatyam dancer. Shweta sees no incongruity in this. “Bharatnatyam and rugby are my two passions. Both are a great way to channel my energies. And who said rugby has anything to do with gender?” she asks. The 20-year-old has just finished giving her arangetram (literally “entering the stage”), a test to graduate into a Bharatnatyam dancer.

Mudras on stage and passes on the rugby field come with equal ease to the commerce student from Pune, who has been training at Khare’s Rugby and Football Academy for a year now. Ask her what attracted her to rugby and she says, “the aggression and madness of this full-contact sport.”
The madness and aggression was on display last week in Bangkok as India’s first national women rugby team took position at their maiden international match. As the butterflies in her stomach settled down, line breaker Vahbiz Bharucha saw a gap, seized the opportunity, and rocketed her strong frame through the Laos garrison with blistering pace.

She held on to those 12 inches of inflated leather for dear life as the Laos backs chased her shadow. Gliding through the 100-meter lush green pitch of the Police Stadium, Pattaya, the 16-year-old slid past the goal line. The touch judge raised his flag and indicated a try—that’s goal in rugby parlance.

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