Ruchi Shetty and Shikha Thakkar, who represented Maharashtra in Rugby at the 35th National Games held at Kerala went all the way to win the Silver medal as they stood Second among all the teams that competed in Rugby. Maharashta made it to the grand finale and lost to an outstanding Odisha team.

Maharashtra were grouped with West Bengal, Jammu & Kashmir and home team Kerala. The girls from Maharashtra were unstoppable in the group stages as they won all their matches. They faced Jammu in their first match and thrashed them by a score line of 39-0. After a comprehensive win in their first, they repeated the feat against Kerala by beating them 26-0. In the last match against West Bengal, they found some competition but still emerged victorious. They beat West Bengal 17-12 and marched on to the semi-finals where they faced the home team Kerala again. Kerala had qualified for a play-off and so met Maharashtra again in the semi -final. The result of the semi-final remained the same as in the group stages for Maharashtra as they defeated Kerala again by a massive 20-0 score line. Maharashtra met Odisha in the finals and were completely outplayed this time as Odisha won the bout by a score of 17-5.

This was the first time Rugby was introduced in the National Games in 35 editions and as many as 10 states fielded teams in both the Men’s and Women’s category. Services also included their team in the Men’s category. The initial response to Rugby at the National Games was overwhelming and hopefully it will gain more popularity and mileage by the time the next version of the National Games are held at Goa.

MSSC congratulates all the girls that are a part of the Maharashtra squad especially Ruchi and Shikha on winning the Silver medal for the state in Rugby and wish that they go a long way in the sport.