One Man’s Story about Growing Rugby In India

from Khare’s Football & Rugby Academy:

The story starts with two brothers Swapneel (Neel) and  Surhud Khare both born in Zambia and brought up in Swaziland. Thanks to the African love of football and the combination of being coached Rugby by mostly British teachers and there proximity to South Africa they grew up with a love for both Football and Rugby Union. Their father ( a Forensic Pathologist) expired in 1985 and  since both were minors their  mother decided to return ‘home’ to India. It was a culture shock and things were well tough for them but they immersed themselves  in sport and mainly football. Rugby was something only a few people had even heard of and whenever they tried to coach a bit or even just talk about it people thought we were nutters. Whenever Surhud thought they were taking a few steps forward in terms of getting kids/people interested, there would subsequently be many steps back  for example In Surhuds first job after leaving College was as a Sports Instructor at a local school. He introduced Rugby in some classes during the PE lessons and the kids loved it. Teachers, parents and the Principal however did not as kids started trooping into class with torn shirts and missing buttons ( no one noticed the big huge smiles on their faces!) and he was sacked within six months. He is still in touch with some of those ‘kids’ and they say it was some of their best 6 months in school!In 2000 there was a major disagreement at the football Club  where Neel and  Surhud were coaching at as certain people in power at that club were dead against them Coaching rugby whenever possible. Around this time though, thanks to the Internet, they found out that there was Rugby in India in places like Bombay ,Gym in Mumbai and CCFC in Kolkata. In 2001 Neel took the initiative and formed KFANDRA ( Khare’s Football and Rugby Academy) while Surhud lay in hospital in a life or death struggle with a very serious case of Jaundice. As a reward for pulling through he was appointed Head Rugby Coach! The first couple of years for Kfandra were spent on a hillside as they had no ground to speak of. But thanks to innovative coaching numbers actually grew and the first few girls joined. At this time time any girl joining would only be for football.

Pune is a city in which blokes playing football is seen as very macho, leave alone girls, so Girls Rugby was something else. By late 2004 theye had a sizeable squad of girls (20+) who we realised had the personality to really take to rugby and Surhud started devoting more and more time to Coaching Rugby. Frankly they thought that maybe out of 20 girls 5 may love it, 5 may hate and 10 would be indifferent. How wrong they were! 15 loved it and 5 still preferred football but no-one hated it! For 3 years the girls trained and played games amongst themselves whenever it was possible but mostly during the monsoons. By this time we had a ground,  its a ground in name only and more resembles rocky Martian terrain. It was during one such game of 8’s in pouring rain that we knew our girls were Rugby Ready. during a scrum one of the girls, Prachi, had her nose knocked and as can happen in such injuries blood was gushing though the wound was superficial. We took her off the field to clean up the wound while the game continued. She started crying. Thinking she may be worried about her looks being spoiled or something I told her not to worry as the wound was minor and that she was as beautiful as ever. She told us that’s not why she’s crying but because she thinks we wont let her back in the game!

In late 2007 the girls were asked to play an exhibition 7’s game in Ahmednagar at the Army base as a prelude to the Pune Rugby vs Army friendly. It was fascinating to see the looks on the faces of the Army men as they had never thought that they would see Indian girls on a Rugby field. As the Army men played elsewhere they spread the story of our girls. It was in July 2008 that the real turning point in Indian Women’s Rugby came about. Greeg Davey ( who was then the IRB appointed Rugby Development Manager for India)  asked our girls to play in a 12 a side Exhibition match before the All India U=20  Men’s Final. Coaches and players from all over the country were present and as they watched our girls slug it out we could literally feel their excitement growing. At the end the girls were met with a rapturous ovation and many of the Coaches came to Surhud to thank and congratulate him saying that this had inspired them to start Women’s Rugby back in their towns and cities.. By November 2008 states like J and K and Kerala had put together teams and Kfandra and Wirfu ( Western India Rugby Football Union) jointly held the first Women’s 7’s competition that featured 6 teams including 2 Pune sides and one International team from Hong Kong. This was a truly wonderful moment for our girls as they were finally able to pit their wits and skills against other opposition and their joy was doubled when the Irfu  officials present that day said that they had been so impressed by the girls skill level they would now form the Indian Women’s Rugby team to play in the Asian 7’s in 2009.

Thus the unique scenario where we did not coach our girls so that they could break into the Indian team but that the Indian team was formed because the girls had come up to that level.. The 1st All India women’s 7’s was held in may 2009 and the Pune 2 team ran out winners with Pune 1 in third place. The fast improving Jungle Crows of Kolkata came runners up. In the Indian team that was selected 11 out of the 13 member squad was ours!

Kaikhushru Taraporevala  had already become a part of our Pune Rugby family a few years earlier and  without his help and support, not just financially but in so many other ways, all that we have achieved would just not have been possible. Thanks to his foresight, in 2010 they formed RFS Pune.  As a result Kfandra was able to concentrate on coaching kids Football and Rugby and become an Academy strictly for boys and girls 5 – 15 while RFS Pune took on the wider and Rugby centric role of spreading the sport of Rugby Union in Pune. Thus in the 2010 7’s our girls played the All India 7’s in Delhi under the RFS Pune banner and were defeated in a close final by Jungle Crows. Later in the year 6 of our girls were selected for the Asian Games squad while another 2 lost out due to injuries in the latter part of the camp. In the All India 7’s held in Pune this year RFS Pune 1 once again reclaimed the crown  not conceding a single point in the whole tourney. This was followed by the Asian 7’s in Pune this month in which 7 of our girls were selected. All in all 13 of our girls have been capped for India.

What was it that helped us develop girls Rugby talent in a city which had no Rugby roots at all. one was in how they sold the game to the girls. The one thing that differentiates our sport from every other is the ethos of the game and this is what the girls took to heart… The discipline, camaraderie,, the ‘tunnel’ being formed after every game, the respect shown to the ref ( especially striking given what they had experienced in football!). Plus we ensured through good coaching that no girl played contact until she had her tackling basics down to a T. Any bad injury during the fledgling stages could have been catastrophic but there was none despite no lessening in intensity.

Another major factor was the involvement of Parents. Many parents were quite wary of their daughters getting involved in Rugby but we made all sessions open to them and once they realised that the sport was also about skill and intelligence and not just brute force their minds were swayed. Of course seeing the smiles and sheer joy on their daughters faces would convince any parents mind. We have come to the stage now that there is nowhere else in India that attracts family crowds for Rugby matches as we attract for both the Men’s and Women’s games. And of course as months and years pass and parents see their daughters doing well in work or academics thanks to the confidence they have gained from Rugby then there’s no turning back.

http://www.rfspune.com/
http://www.kfandra.com/