Jat's the way to do it as Indians gear up for rugby

Alex Brown

October 1, 2010
The Delhi Hurricanes rugby team, from which two brothers were selected for India's sevens squad, train. Photo: Quentin Jones

DELHI: Not much is expected of the Indian rugby team at these Commonwealth Games. They were lapped 153-0 by the Leicester Tigers a few years back and draw from local clubs whose recruiting strategies include targeting nightclub bouncers due to their size.
''There was a shortage of players so I was asked to go to the pubs and look for big guys,'' recalls Kuldeep Bist, coach of the Delhi Hurricanes rugby club and a veteran of 11 internationals for India. ''I look for players from the Jat community. They are known for their aggressive nature. They speak very roughly. They are good at tackles but [are] missing [a rugby] brain.''
Talent they may lack, but there is no denying the passion of India's emerging rugby community. It is 6.30am, and the sun is only just beginning to rise above Gurgaon, a city south of Delhi.
Already the mercury is nudging 30 degrees when members of the Delhi Hurricanes - so named because of Bist's fondness for Jonah Lomu and his former provincial side - start their training drills on a playing field at Shri Ram public school. Lungs heave and sweat pours in the stifling conditions, but there are no complaints. Many have driven an hour from Maidan Garhi, a Jat-dominated village in the south of Delhi, to be put through their paces before they return to work and study.
From these humble ranks have ascended two members of India's Commonwealth Games sevens squad - the brothers Deepak ''Lee'' Dagar, who earned his nickname due to a Brett Lee-like coif, and Gautam Dagar. Their cousin, Nitin Dagar would most likely have joined them were it not for a suspension from the local rugby authorities. ''He did a mischievous thing and roamed around naked,'' Bist says. Player behaviour is not an issue confined to our shores.
The Dagars, like most of the Delhi Hurricanes, hail from the Jat community, renowned across India for their proud military history and bravery. It is for these reasons Bist recruited them to rugby.
''They are tough and are not afraid of physical contact,'' he says. ''Everyone in India is scared of the north Indian teams because they are bigger in size and aggressive. They are not so good at sevens because their bodies are big.''
Rugby players in India face many obstacles. In Delhi, for example, rugby pitches are thin on the ground - ''when the Games are over they are going to remove the posts and make them cricket fields again'' - and clubs do not insure players for injury.
''There is no money,'' Bist says. ''Once you get injured you are in big trouble. Even if you are insured there is no guarantee you will get into hospital. It's hard for people with jobs.''

http://www.smh.com.au/commonwealth-g...930-15z9g.html