India national rugby union team

Rugby team
country = India


imagesize = 90px
union = Indian Rugby-Football Union
coach = flagicon|Fiji Usaia Biumaiwai
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pattern_b1 =_thinwhitesides
pattern_ra1 =
leftarm1 = 1E90FF
body1 = 1E90FF
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shorts1 = ffffff
socks1 = 1E90FF
first = Singapore 85 - 0 India
(1998-10-26)
bigwin = India 92 - 0 Pakistan
(2008-06-14)
bigloss = Arabian Gulf 97 - 3 India
(2001-04-27)The Indian Rugby Team is ranked 84th in the world( as of Feb 21 IRB Rankings), out of 95 teams. Their captain is Nasser Hussain, nicknamed "Nino", and their coach is Usaia Biumaiwai from Fiji. There are, in total, 17,200 registered rugby players in India. They were admitted to the IRB in 2001, but it took three years before India managed to win a match - beating Pakistan 56-3 in the third tier competition of the Asian Biennial tournament.

In 2005, they started their attempt to qualify for the 2007 Rugby World Cup, but a 22-36 loss to Kazakhstan sent them out of the running for that tournament. They also disappointed with an 8-8 tie in Guam, but still finished second in their group of four teams thanks to beating Malaysia 48-12 - a massive improvement, as only two years earlier Malaysia had beaten them 20-13 in a friendly. However, as only the top team in the group qualified for the next stage, India were out. Their current record in IRB-recognised internationals is two wins, one tie, and fourteen losses.

External links

* [http://www.indiarugby.co.in:8080/index.jsp The Official Website of Indian Rugby]
* [http://www.irb.com/WR/ IRB World Rankings]
* [http://www.irb.com/IRB/TemplateFiles/General/ResultsQueryTemplate.aspx?NRMODE=Published&NRORIGINALURL=%2fFixtures%2fResultsSearch%2f&NRNODEGUID=%7b08B408A2-B539-414E-9AF8-8DC1D398CC41%7d&NRCACHEHINT=Guest Indian Rugby Internationals]
* [http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/QUALIFYING/ 2007 Rugby World Cup qualifying procedures]
* [http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/RESULTS/ 2007 Rugby World Cup results]