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RNZ News
9 hours ago
- Sport
- RNZ News
India Rugby backs sevens franchise for 10 years
Rugby India President Rahul Bose. Photo: AFP India Rugby and its partners have committed to backing the Rugby Premier League (RPL), the world's first franchise-based sevens league, for the next 10 years. President and Bollywood actor Rahul Bose told RNZ Pacific from Mumbai that all the six franchise teams plus their funders have signed on for the first event, which will kick off on 15 June, and the next nine events down the line. The tournament will take place in Mumbai at the Mumbai Football Arena and will feature 30 international players playing alongside local players. Six teams are representing the Indian cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Bhubaneswar. The franchises are Bengaluru Bravehearts, Chennai Bulls, Delhi Redz, Hyderabad Heroes, Kalinga Black Tigers, and the Mumbai Dreamers. The Mumbai Dreamers team. Photo: Mumbai Dreamers Thirty international players are now with the six teams, with five players per team from the field of 30 invited to play at the event. The list includes Fijians Jerry Tuwai, who will play for Mumbai Dreamers, along with Waisea Nacuqu, plus Australian pair Harry Hutchinson and James Turner. South African playmaker Rosco Speckman and his Australian counterpart Maurice Longbottom, who have clashed over numerous times on the world sevens circuit, will team up for the Kalinga Black Tigers. New Zealand players Akuila Rokolisea, Scott Curry and Tone Ng Shiu team up with Spain's star Pol Pla and Fijian Ioane Teba for the Bengaluru Bravehearts. All six head coaches are well-known on the world sevens rugby circuit and these are Mike Friday (former USA sevens head coach), Ben Gollings (England sevens legend and former Fiji sevens head coach), DJ Forbes (New Zealand sevens icon), Tomasi Cama (New Zealand sevens coach), Paco Hernandez (Spain sevens coach) and Tim Walsh (Australia women's sevens head coach). The league will also feature 30 Indian players. Bose said the event will be a big boost for rugby in India, and one that has been in the pipeline for some time. He said sevens is one of the most attractive television sports in modern history. "This is a league that's been six years in the making, but we wanted to do everything right," he said. "The first extraordinary development came thanks to World Rugby, who gave us a 15-day window in which no international rugby sevens would be played anywhere in the world." The league will be broadcast live on Star Sports and JioHotstar. Bose said the event will be a major boost for rugby in India. "It's going to transform and create pathways for many more people to enter the rugby ecosystem, and also players, who would normally never get a chance to upskill under the Indian national team environment, will now be picked up," Rahul said. He said viewer numbers could be anything between 10 and 50 million in the first year. "And whatever it is, it's been an impressive number, and sponsors who were earlier never attracted to rugby, because rugby was never seen on television, will now have commercial interest in the sport. "So between the regeneration and the rejuvenation and new talent, both on the field and off the field, happening internally, there will also be money happening externally, and when the two meet, that will result in a massive infusion of energy into the game in the country." Bose said having international players play alongside local players in the six franchise teams is going to be massive for the players and the development of the game, especially sevens, in India. He pointed to performance and culture as two key lessons for the local players. "One is the Indians, the best of India, to understand how much further they have to go to become world class players," Bose said of the flow-on effect he and Rugby India expect from the players' interactions. "So definitely, performance on the field, nutritional conditioning, rehab, habits on and off the field. I think that will be a huge learning experience for any of these boys. Psychological preparation, temperament, readying yourself during a match for the next challenge, readying yourself between matches for the next challenge. "And the second is culture. "What is the unspoken culture that is being cultivated amongst these players that makes them who they are? What are the kind of things they do when nobody's watching? What are the kinds of things they don't do when nobody's telling them not to do something? These are the things that build culture." All the players and the six coaches plus team officials recruited for the franchise events are being paid fees in accordance to World Rugby guidelines. Bose said this is something Rugby India had worked on with the franchise owners and funders, to ensure that finance is a non-issue. "The entire league is privately funded; World Rugby has nothing to do with it," he said. "We have six franchise owners, each of them pay a franchise fee, which goes into the central pool, and the central league engages sponsor that also goes to central pool. "The player's fee is separate. The coach's fee is separate. The transportation and living experience expenses of coaches and players is separate. We have been guided by World Rugby as to what to tell the team owners, what they can spend, what they should be offering the coaches and the players." On the tournament previews, Bose said it is exciting for India. He said the league offers the opportunity for players to play alongside each other rather than against each other, over a new format that focuses on giving players a lot of time to recuperate and recover, so they can be at their best. "And the players are very excited because they are going to be playing alongside players they've never played with, and they've always played against, whether it is an Irish player playing against a Fijian and now playing with a Fijian; whether it is a South African player, playing against an Argentinian player and now playing with the Argentinian player," Bose said. "And everybody's very excited that this new format, of just one game a day per team. "People should expect world-class rugby in a way that they haven't seen before." The event kicks off on 15 June with the Bengaluru Bravehearts taking on the Delhi Redz while the Chennai Bulls face the Mumbai Dreamers. The third game of the day will be between the Hyderabad Heroes and the Kaling Black Tigers.
India Gazette
5 days ago
- Sport
- India Gazette
"It's a big opportunity for Indian players": Indian Rugby player Aakash Balmiki on inaugural edition of RPL
New Delhi [India] June 6 (ANI): Mumbai Dreamers player Aakash Balmiki believes that the inaugural edition of the Rugby Premier League (RPL) in India is a significant opportunity for Indian players to elevate the game. He notes that the game is widely recognised in the country, providing a great platform to encourage players and increase their involvement. 'I think for the Indian players, it's a big opportunity for us, you know, to take this game to the next level. Everybody knows about this game in the country. And you know, it's really good platform that every player will get encouraged that they want to be part of it and get involved with it,' Aakash Balmiki told ANI. Indian Rugby Football Union, the RPL is the first franchise-based league in the world and will have six founding franchises in the opening edition. The League will kick off from June 15 to 29, 2025, at the Andheri Sports Complex in Mumbai. He reflected on the Mumbai Dreamers environment, how coaches have created a welcoming atmosphere, and how British players share their experience and playing style with them so that all the players can match up. 'It's like a very comfortable environment coaches and the team have created for us. And it's like very comfortable, like everybody's like helping each other, especially the players have come from, you know, the series and the British players like very welcoming. And, you know, they're sharing their experience with us. They're trying to, you know, share their playing style with us so that we can match up.' He shared his experience playing for the Dallas Harlequins Rugby Football Club and how he will use his expertise from Dallas for Mumbai Dreamers in the Rugby Premier League. 'Dallas, it's completely different. I was playing 15 aside, not sevens. And it's like more people in the same field. And so, yeah, it was like a different experience. I played against people who have played in the World Cup, played in the Tongan and someone. So I played against them. So it's like an experience for me, and I learned a lot. Now I'm trying to, you know, use that experience here with the Mumbai Dreamers. And hopefully, like, you know, we do well.' He also reflected on his childhood experience with Khelo Rugby, where he played the sport. Now, he coaches young coaches, aiming to have them return to their communities and share their experiences, mirroring his journey. I grew up with an organisation called Khelo Rugby. When I was kid, I got introduced with that organisation. And yeah, as a kid, playing, played the rugby in that organisation. Now I'm taking charge. And, you know, I coach coaches, like young coaches. So that the community they come from, they go back to the same community. And, you know, share the same experience that I had when I was a kid,' he added. RPL will feature six city-based teams, showcasing elite talent from top rugby nations around the globe, along with top-tier players from India. The league will feature some of the best 7s rugby talent internationally as well as from India. (ANI)
