Today marks 10 years of Rugby at Mumbai Strikers. We get in conversation with MS co-founder and CEO Rohit D'souza who introduced Rugby in the club. We speak to him about the 10 year journey of the oval ball at the club.
How did you encounter Rugby and what got you to start it at Mumbai Strikers SC?
My first encounter with Rugby was in late 2009, when I was working for an International Sport for Development non-profit known as Magic Bus. Surprisingly, most of the staff played rugby there which I had just no idea about. Then I got to know that the founder of Magic Bus, Mathew Spacie was a rugby player and he introduced the staff to the sport. Some of the staff like Vijay and Anwar took the sport seriously and founded the Magician Rugby Club, honouring Magic Bus and continuing their passion for Rugby. The club now plays in the top tier of the Indian domestic rugby circuit. Some of my colleagues then invited me to the famous Oval Maidan at CST to watch them & to join them in training. When I first saw it, I was amazed at the level of teamwork and effort it demanded, so I thought I’d join them considering it will be a new & good fitness regimen for me and to complement my football skills. However, when I played it, I soon realised that players who were good athletes but a little short at the skill in the feet for football could excel in rugby.
In the year 2010, Mumbai Strikers SC, were only a set of 22 players competing in the 2nd tier of Mumbai Football League. I realised we were saying no to a lot more people who wished to be part of the club because they lacked a little skill in their feet for football and overlooking what other skills they possessed. Therefore,I decided that I would provide opportunities to people close to where I reside, who were athletes and were not getting to be a part of any team. It could be a new routine workout for the football team as well. I was then managing the Football team and was playing for a team named PDP Waves in the Super Division.
When I did discussed the idea with the core group, everyone had their doubts and they were kind of right as Rugby was such an alien sport to all and it was only seen sometimes in the movies and people could not differentiate between Rugby and American Football. I assured the core team I would take full responsibility and I asked for a time of two years to work things out.
I did my research & was aware that the National Federation – Rugby India was based in Mumbai, unlike the Football federation which was nearly 1400 km away in Delhi. This proximity would help the club liaison better with the apex body of the sport in the country. I thought this would personally help me learn a lot of how governance in sport works, how a less popular sport is being marketed, which could be used by us to promote our own football club. To be precise, there were multiple reasons, it was to make the football team fitter, open new doors to more people to be associated with the club and I had personally a lot to gain in terms of enhancing my administrative skills.
Once the idea struck you, what was your next step & how did you go on to start the team?
I managed convincing the core team, but whom do I teach it to? I was the only person who knew to play it and I had to get others to take it up. I had initially thought to use it as a fitness routine for football. So the easiest way to start it out was with the football team. I had borrowed a ball from a member of the Magician Rugby team. The ball did generate a lot of curiosity among the players. They were handling an oval ball for the first time & everyone was figuring out its dynamics. The way it bounced etc. We just kept playing handball & only followed the rule of scoring a try (try is an equivalent of scoring in rugby). I myself did not know most of the rules, let alone the technical and tactical part. However, I knew more than all around me, so I kept teaching with the intention to improve the fitness of the team and kept them engaged with the oval ball. The oval ball activities became our routine warm up, but we still did not play anything close to rugby. I knew I needed to take help so I went to the National Federation office and showed my interest in starting a Rugby Club. I met Mr.Pritom Roy, who was an elite active rugby player at the time and was working as an administrator at Rugby India. He agreed to help me and drove all the way to Mulund, equipped with a couple of rugby balls to train. We decided on the 27th of June in 2010 as the date to train. I was not sure how many of the footballers would turn up so I had spread the word out in the locality & had asked the footballers to share information with family and friends.
How and where did you meet the members of the first rugby team?
To my disappointment, none of the footballers volunteered to play the actual game. However, I did manage to get a group of freshly passed 10th grade boys from Udayachal School in Vikhroli, who got to know that Mumbai Strikers SC was forming a rugby team. I vividly remember that day when Ashish Rane connected to me and I was glad that they had played rugby in school, but it was the non-contact version mostly. Our current no. 10 Saurabh Solanki is from that batch of boys, but he chose football over rugby, whereas the rest chose to play rugby. I invited them for a training session with Mr Pritom Roy. I was so relieved that we had someone coming or else I was going to find myself in such an embarrassing situation. I also spread the word out in the community due to which some adventurous characters who were exploring to do something new in life joined in too. One of them was Sudharshan Narsimhan who went on to play for Bombay Gymkhana, worked at Rugby India and now is playing with his University team in Philadelphia, USA.
How did you begin training and when did you play the first rugby tournament?
In Mumbai Strikers SC, we always had this culture to train right from the 4th division. We were one of the very few clubs in the city that trained for competitions, despite being in the lower league. This tradition naturally flowed in rugby too. One day, Mr Pritom Roy informed us of a local tournament which was to be held in 7 days’ time and he suggested we should play it. Mr Pritom Roy coincidentally had also worked for a very brief period with the boys of Udayachal who comprised of 80% of the first squad.
We only worked on understanding the rules as rugby is a very high intensity game. Unknowingly, we were breaking the rules. On the day of the tournament, all the Rugby playing teams knew we were the newest team on the block and did tolerate us with our mistakes on the field. I was using my football managing skills to keep the boys motivated. I was in a situation where I was not only learning new things, but also managing chaotic situations. The entire experience was amazing.
From the first tournament ever played, tell us about the journey of competitive rugby up to now.
As everything was new, we did learn very fast in the first five years of playing the sport. We managed to get recreational football players from North East Mumbai in the sport. We even managed to beat Bombay Gymkhana’s main team once in a local tournament in 2014, under the guidance of the very experienced Vikas Chaurasiya. However, as the players started getting better they started getting calls from the other more established rugby clubs to join them. Eventually, some senior footballers joined in as we were short of players. Many may not know this, our all-time leading scorer Ravish D’souza too played a couple of seasons. The current captain of the MS Senior Men’s Football team, Rakesh Patne and ex captain Arnold Mascarenhas too played a couple of tournaments to support the team. I also played four seasons of rugby. We did manage to win a couple of competitions. However, by 2016 the men's team had ceased because of the exodus of the players to other Rugby Clubs and the football team racing up the divisions, which prevented the football players to chip in. However when this downward slide happened, the women’s team players were rising and unlike the men's team, the women’s team players were growing leaps and bounds. The players from the women's team have gone on to represent the Indian National Rugby team at various age categories. We are doing consistently well at the junior level and the girls are featuring regularly at the club, district, state and national level rugby tournaments in all age categories and all formats of the game.
Since rugby was now in the mainstream of Mumbai Strikers SC, you decided to introduce rugby in the St. Mary's Girls Convent, Mulund. How did you build up there and how did the girls perform?
I took rugby to St. Mary's Convent in the summer of 2011 in their annual summer camp. That was the first time Ruchi Shetty & Shikha Thakker encountered the oval ball for the first time in their lives. Ruchi is the current captain of Mumbai Strikers SC Women’s Rugby team and a regular in the senior Indian women’s rugby team, while Shikha Thakker is the current coach of the MS women’s team. I introduced the sport very gradually, as I had learnt from my mistakes of introducing contact too early to the football team and the resistance I faced because of the fear of getting injured. At St. Mary’s we mastered touch rugby which was what was played at the school level and ironically Udayachal High School was the champion in 2011.
St. Mary's played their first tournament in December 2011. However, it was a club tournament organised by the Magicians Rugby Club at Mumbai Port Trust ground. Towards the end of the academic year of 2011-12, the girls had fallen in love with the sport and quite a few still continue to play it competitively. St Mary's participated in their first interschool touch Rugby tournament in December 2012, which is almost a year & a half after the oval ball had entered St. Mary’s. We went on to become champions toppling Udayachal High School and since then have held on to pole position till date. Rugby is no longer a sport in St. Mary’s; it is a part of the culture. If you are from St. Mary’s Convent, Mulund, then there is a very high chance that you must have handled a rugby ball. Till date we have introduced the sport to about more than three thousand girls in the school.
We have started contact rugby with the girls from as early as standard five. The players who are now the senior members of the Rugby team contribute their knowledge and time to the younger players, ensuring it doesn't suffer the fate of the men's team and there are always players to keep representing the school & club and the culture does not die out.
St. Mary’s Convent would have not been successful, if the senior men's team members Ajay Narsimhan & Vijay Narsimhan would not have trained the first batch of players in the school. The Indian captain Nasser Hussain also came in once at the initial phase of the program to train the girls and donated a substantial quantity of rugby training equipment which is still in use. Currently, the program is managed mostly by the alumni who are keen to share the joy of playing rugby and wanting to give back to the sport.
The school has won several accolades over the years and there are some which are very important. The girls were U17 state champions of Maharashtra at the DSO competition for 2 consecutive years & U14 state champions of Maharashtra at the DSO competition once. St. Mary’s has consistently been providing players in the U14/17 categories for Maharashtra in the National School Games.
How has the knowledge of Rugby developed at the club?
At this moment, we have far more knowledge of the sport in the club because of the women players attending district, state and national camps. At a recent national camp, Ruchi had the chance to learn from the South African Rugby Legend Nass Botha, who was voted the World’s Best Player in the 70’s. When our players get to interact with such iconic individuals, the experience is amazing and the knowledge gained is tenfold. Rugby India also offers quite a few programs for Rugby education in the country for the active and past rugby players alike. MS is an integral part of Rugby India’s developmental plan. The aim is to grow and promote the sport and the benefits are passed over to the players, if they wish to stay in touch with the sport in other capacities.
How would you look back on the milestone of Mumbai Strikers SC completing 10 years playing Rugby?
Now that I retrospect, Rugby has given MS quite a few firsts at the club and lots of overall learning. We are the first Football club in the country to adopt Rugby and play it competitively. Therefore, we are now a part of Indian rugby’s rich history. How many clubs get to be in this position, very few I think. Rugby has given MS its first international players in the form of Ruchi Shetty, Gargee Walekar, Kshitija Manglurkar, Krutuja Manglurkar & Shraddha Lawand. It has helped the club to come up with improved communication methods with the governing bodies of sport, due to interaction with high ranking Rugby Administrators on a regular basis. As I said before, the proximity of the governing body would have its benefits. Rugby also opened doors to non-footballing athletes to join and connect to our club.
What do you think is the future of the sport in Mumbai Strikers SC?
I feel Rugby India is working in the right direction. I see the women’s team making it to World Cup as there is a steady growth. As for the club, we plan to start a full fledge Rugby academy for both girls and boys, restart the men’s 7s team & progress to a women’s 15s team. We wish to participate in the National Club level tournaments, provide players, coaches, referees and administrators to the District, State and National Federation. To continue popularising the sport in North East Mumbai and keep providing athletes to excel in team sports will always be a continuous effort at the club.