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.

In the final analysis, the Indian women’s rugby team didn’t win many games at their first international tournament. But given the fact that they were novices pitted against experienced and physically tougher opponents, they put up a show of grit. “We saw that the other teams were of a different class altogether. But we focused on our strengths and gave it our all and a little bit more,” said Avani Sabade, 20, captain of the side. No one expected them to even win a match. They ended their tournament with a victory over the Cambodian side.

The origins of rugby, often called a ruffian’s game played by gentlemen—a definition that our girls surely want changed—are clouded in mystery. Some credit it to Lancashire guy Webb Ellis who, legend has it, picked a football in his hands during a match in 1823 and ran to the goalpost, thus changing the rules of the game. Others date it further back to the Roman Empire. But what is clear is that the Indian women’s rugby squad found itself in Pune. Eleven of the 13-member team belong to the city. The two other girls, Joshobanti Behera and Sangeeta Minz, are from Bhubaneshwar.

Twenty-five-year-old Behera is a student at the Utkal University in Orissa and Minz, also 25, is studying arts at the Rourkela University. Both are national kabaddi players and play rugby in the off-season. They come from impoverished backgrounds and their coach Nita Mohanty takes care of them. After a local men’s team won the Under-14 Rugby World Cup in 2007 in London, the sport has been promoted heavily in Orissa. That’s how many girls were introduced to it.
The ripples of this game have been felt elsewhere. Irfan Butta, general secretary, Jammu & Kashmir Rugby Football

Association, says he had a few problems convincing parents to let their daughters play the physically demanding sport. “But we held a camp where parents could see the girls playing and this is what convinced them,” he says. Butta has seen his squad strength increase from a paltry 12 in 2004 to over 200 at present. Down south in Kerala too, it’s not uncommon to see an all-girls team engrossed in practice sessions of sprinting, ball passing and tackle-training. Mahesh Kumar R, secretary of Kerala State Rugby Association, is already looking forward to the day when one of his girls makes it to the national squad.

But till then, whenever the women’s national team goes into a huddle, the war cry is going to be: POONA! Surhud Khare, coach of the Pune rugby team, says that the willingness to train hard is why the Pune girls are doing well at rugby. For the players, the thrill of a sport that demolishes that damsels-in-distress image is what spurs them on. “We are not worried about bumps and bruises. We don’t even care if our complexions darken in the sun. We just love the sport”, says chatty fly-half, Surabhi Date, 18, who is the skilful Fijian of her team (If you have to ask, Fijians are to rugby what Brazilians are to football).

Bharucha, the explosive back, loves rugby for the aggression it allows her. “I like that I can be rough. I don’t have to feel guilty about hurting people as I know they will get the chance of hurting me back,” she says. The stocky teenager has just written her Class X exams at the Sardar Dastur Hormazdiar High School and started playing rugby just a couple of months back. Her other interests? Handball, wrestling, athletics and fencing.

But while Bharucha may jest that “boys get scared of me when I tell them that I am a rugby player,” for most the motivation to play the game is the same as for any other sportsperson—to win for the country. Which is why 20-year-old captain Sabade was more than stunned when she realised in Bangkok that the world was playing at a much higher level than them. “While playing our first match, we took an early lead and were on top of the world. But that changed in a minute when the opposition came right back, within minutes of the second half. We realised we had a long way to go”, says Sabade, who studies arts at Fergusson College.

How did the girls discover rugby? Credit that to an afternoon of rain and a coach who is a rugby enthusiast. On rainy days, when the field was too slushy for football, coach Khare would drag the girls out for a game of rugby. Since then, Sabade and her kind have been hooked. Though the team was cobbled together barely days before the Bangkok tournament, they have bonded well. “Team spirit was what pushed us in the game against Cambodia. One of the Cambodian players had the audacity to slap our player. It enraged us and provided that extra motivation to beat them,” says 20-year-old Ketaki Khare, a national bronze medallist in judo.

Then there’s Gayatri Salunkhe, the speedy winger, who scored all three tries in the game against Cambodia. Salunkhe was awarded a traditional hat from Uzbekistan and a scarf from the Laos camp in honour of her good performance.
The traditionally masculine game has taken its toll on the girls. While Avanti Ghaksasi broke her hand before the tournament, Surabhi tore her knee ligament on the second match of the tourney. “But isn’t that with every sport?’’ is all Neha Pardeshi, 15, the baby of the team, asks if you point this out. The diminutive figure is an excellent athlete and aspires to make it to the Indian athletics squad at the Commonwealth Games. “I would hate to choose between the two at this stage though. I love both equally,” she says.

The girls do all the things that girls love to do off field—from shopping to partying to chilling out. Niharika plays the drums and loves trekking. Shruti loves watching TV, hanging out with friends, and logging on to Facebook. Ketaki loves to dance. Anandita Kulkarni, at 22, is the calmest of the lot, preferring to let her game do the talking. The pacy back started playing rugby three years ago. The mischief-maker of the team is Surabhi Date, who scared everyone by claiming that the Bangkok hotel in which they were put up was haunted. The serious one is Sabade, as she had to keep the mischievous lot in control.

Do they identify themselves with the Chak De!India team? Nah! comes the reply. Gladiator and 300 would be more like it!
So what is the future? More practice, of course. Niharika Bal, the hard-tackling forward, is of the view that the Bangkok tournament helped the team assess where they stand. “There were many teams with superior skills and dexterity. They were also physically much stronger than us. We realised that we have a long way to go if we want to be in the reckoning”, says the 20-year-old, who, with her large frame, was a foreboding opponent.
It’s 11.30 a.m. The scorching sun is right overhead in Kondhwa. It’s time for the girls to slug it out on the field for another couple of hours. Prachande is among the first on the field. She’s had one arangetram, one initiation. The forward knows the stage is set for another coming.