It was a proud moment for five girls from St Marys Convent, Mulund as their names were listed in the final squad of the Maharashtra U-17 girls Rugby team for the 61st National School Games Federation of India tournament. The girls gave their best performance as they impressed the selection team and made sure they were through. Riya Coutinho, Krutuja Manglurkar, Kshitija Manglurkar, Swati Shenoy and Ishita Chande made it to the Maharashtra U-17 team.

The trials were held at Sadar in Nagpur at the Tirpude College Grounds. 30 girls from different districts of Maharashtra made it for the selection process out of which 12 players plus 3 reserve players will be selected for the camp that will be held in the last week of December. Girls from various divisions of Maharashtra like Nashik, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Mumbai etc. came with a hope to make it to the tournament which will be played in Orissa from the 26th to the 31st of December 2015.

The Sport of Rugby was introduced in the school four years back by the Mumbai Strikers Founder Rohit D’souza. He believed that the sport could help the students from St. Marys to explore new games, participate and perform at the highest level that is at offer in the country and from the past two years a handful of alumni from the Rugby program have a regular feature in the national circuit.

The five girls have been mentored and trained by the Mumbai Strikers Senior Rugby 7s team members Ajay N and Vijay N for the past two years.

We wish Riya, Krutuja, Kshitija, Swati and Ishita good luck for the tournament and hope they follow in the steps of their seniors and in the near future dawn the colours of the National Team.