Indian women’s team won its third silver medal
Mumbai: The Indian women’s rugby team won the silver medal for the third time in the last three editions of the Asia Rugby Sevens Cup. After a stellar performance, the Indian women lost to the UAE in the final at the Unasia Training Ground in Doha, Qatar on November 3 and 4.
Indian Rugby Football Union president Rahul Bose said, “This third consecutive silver medal at the Asia Rugby Sevens Cup is a commendable result for the women’s team and a sign of our progress.” This enables us to always give our best. I also congratulate the boys team which secured fifth position in this competition. Last year he stood ninth. This is surprising because we still maintain our position among the top teams in Asia. I will definitely win.
The Indian team, led by the experienced Vavij Bharucha, played with great skill and kept the Emirates in the lead in the first half of the final, although a brilliant performance from Shikha Yadav forced them to trail by just two points. In the second half, Emirates maintained their dominance and penetrated the Indian defence, taking their lead to a total of 19 points.
In the semi-finals, the team defeated Iran by a huge margin of 34-0, defeated Guam by 14-7 and defeated Mongolia by 36-0, winning without any problem and reaching the finals.
Captain Barucha said, “This is the most important event of the year for our team and we feel that we have given our best performance.”
Earlier, the men’s team defeated Qatar in the fifth to sixth ranking game and secured fifth place. Mohit Khatri’s try in the last minute of the game brought India back from the death and Qatar came very close to victory but finished fifth.
Prince Qahtari’s team faced tough competition and made a strong start by defeating Iraq 47–0. Their next draw was a 5–7 defeat to Afghanistan, but they qualified for the bowl-ups and then defeated Uzbekistan 24–7 to set up a clash with Qatar.
