The world is not uniformly round for everyone—and rugby perhaps recognized those steeper edges to life when they designed the oblong ball.

The sport—hitherto thriving in the affluent fringes of the big clubs in Mumbai and Kolkata, and slowly sinking its teeth into Khaki ranks and army barracks—dug deeper into India’s remote interiors to throw up mini-champions at an international tournament this weekend.

A group of 12 tribal kids from the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) in Bhuvaneswar, playing under the banner of the Kolkata-club Jungle Crows and representing India beat a field of ten nations to emerge champions in the Touraid Under-14 international schools tournament for the Nations Cup at Esher on Sunday.

The KISS team — led by Bikash Chandra Murmu — first flung the ball in a sport which is still only marginally exposed to Indians — only four months before they flew out. A week into their London trip, the dream-dozen had done well to down teams from Zambia, Swaziland, Kenya and Romania before running into rugby regulars South Africa, beating them 19-5 to lift the title.

What heightens the sense of this achievement was the group of tribal boys warming up to the fight against a bunch which had probably internalised the back-pass as early as four or five. “The South Africans scored first, but the Crows showed toughness and defended with remarkable composure,” said Kolkata-based Crows’ coach Paul Walsh, adding, “Once they got over their nerves of playing in a final, they were able to put some good rugby together and scored three tries.”

... contd.