Women's Rugby Team Prepares To Go International; Player Talks of Training

Indian women’s rugby team is going to go a notch higher by playing their first International tournament soon in Singapore at the Rugby XVs meet.  “Blood and sweat has gone into preparing for this. Literally,” team player and former captain of the Indian team, Vahbiz Bharucha told Indian Express. She goes on to tell of the many injuries the teammates have faced including three bloodied noses, a knock on the artery of the nose of Vahbiz and a rattled nose bridge for Claudia Crizzle who is the first Goan in the national team.

The team started training from trial and error in speed and agility for the quickie 7-a side format to sustained strength and endurance work with squats and push-ups.

Talking about the game and how different Rugby 7s and 15s Test match are, she says, “It’s like how Hulk needs to control his heart rate to stay in human form.”

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“It’s hit all of us in the last month that we need to put our brains down to this. We can’t just explode and hope to finish a match in minutes running on adrenaline. We can’t make decisions individually, but need to carry the whole team,” Vahbiz added.

The team has devised strategies for various standpoints in their game, even for the water break, the tall centre number 12 rugger said, “Earlier we’d just dawdle away and sip water in our own corner in practice. Now everyone sits and drinks water together in training. It’s been important in team-building. Because it’s not just come-run like mad-go home.”

It’s hit all of us in the last month that we need to put our brains down to this. We can’t just explode and hope to finish a match in minutes running on adrenaline.

Other team-players consists of nine speedy girls from Orissa, six of the bigs who’ll form the forward pack come from India’s champion Delhi Hurricanes side and the Maharashtra girls who along with strength and size, bring the technical core to the table.

The game lasts for 40 minutes straight and it requires high-intensity scrumming and running and kicking.

Picture credit- India.com

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