Greg is Rugby India's full-time Development Manager. In his native New Zealand, rugby is, by far, the most popular sport. In India approximately 17,200 players are registered across all forms of the game. That includes the full-contact fifteen-a-side version, Rugby Sevens, and the non-contact versions of the game; touch and tag rugby.
India's Rugby Development Manager
Yet Greg is optimistic that rugby can take off in India, “we don’t have to grow much for rugby to be massive. If we could get 100,000 players - a minute portion of the population – we’d be one the top ten nations in terms of the numbers of active players. If I can have 50,000 players here in five years, I’d be very, very happy.”
The Development Manager believes that rugby has what it takes to appeal to sport loving Indians. Rugby has a reputation as a tough, contact sport. It demands physical fitness and athletic ability from its players. Playing helps to develop physiques and self-confidence; qualities that also look good on the silver screen. Rahul Bose, a movie actor, is one of India’s best known rugby players of recent years. For a time he captained the national team.
International Player Base Expansion
Trends abroad suggest that the player base will expand quickly once a concerted effort is made to develop the structure of the sport. “Whenever the game has been introduced into countries, it has taken off hugely. In the USA, rugby is now one of the major college sports and colleges are employing rugby coaches. A high school competition has also been set up. Look at China, it’s a huge sport there. Japan has 160,000 players and Sri Lanka 90,000 players: it’s the national winter sport there and regularly seen played on the beaches,” says Greg, who aims to put in place the coaching and administrative infrastructure to ensure that similar growth can be emulated here.
But isn’t rugby, as a contact sport, simply too dangerous to have mass appeal? There’s a huge misnomer about that, thinks Greg: “It’s proven that rugby is not a dangerous sport; no more so than sports such as soccer or hockey or horse riding. The New Zealand Rugby Union have done many, many surveys on this and they have consistently shown that rugby is not a dangerous sport.”
Careful Exposure to the Game
Coaches and rugby development officers are careful to introduce newcomers to contact only after basic skills - such as ball handling, passing and tackling - have been learned and practised many times in training sessions. Tackles are prohibited in touch rugby, which has proved itself a good way for new players to improve their fundamental skills, sense of movement and teamwork. It has become a popular unisex sport in countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
Rugby Sevens is usually the next step for players to hone their skills. India will host the 2010 Commonwealth Games and be participating in the Rugby Sevens tournament against some of the best teams in the world. Greg believes that Indian players have a lot of potential when it comes to this version of the game: “Short to mid-term I see India’s strength as Sevens. A lot of Indian players are agile, fast and generally very strong. I think, given the right coaching, they could compete very well on the international stage.”
That said, on the full international stage, India currently has a world ranking of 83rd among 95 nations. “That’s more to do with the lack of exposure that the national team’s had than anything else,” believes Greg.
Rugby is About Leadership
The Development Manager’s responsibilities cover a broad canvas, including grass roots development. Greg sees developing school and youth level rugby as essential for the long-term popularity of the game and something that can offer young people a lot of benefits: “I see rugby as not just being a physical sport. It’s about leadership. It’s about teamwork. It’s about physical contact, about being fair to each other and understanding the ideals of sportsmanship. Given the right leadership and directions kids can use rugby as an outlet for emotions and physicality, and work together. It would be great if we could associate a major company with us and the development of children.”
The coming months look likely to be busy for Greg, as he assesses how best to implement plans for rugby development in India. As a rugby man, though, tackling challenges is nothing new.
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