The "Goal" of the Indian national team is "to win the Asian championships".
My "missions" are as follows:
① Strengthen the Indian national team
② Improve the Indian rugby culture
③ To become a bridge between Indian rugby and Japanese rugby
Unfortunately, we were unable to win the two games at the Asian Championship against Thailand and Chinese Taipei.
The representative training camp started with 40 people, but finished with 26 people.
Many athletes have backgrounds that are unimaginable, especially for Japan. I believe that each player did their best in the training camp to be chosen as a representative.
I would like to thank all the players, coaches and the stakeholders who participated in the training camp. I feel responsible for not achieving the goal.
However, I think Indian rugby has the potential to become very strong.
Some of my observations are below:
The environment of rugby was not good and what I thought was normal in Japan did not apply in India.
For example,
· The ground condition was in an uneven state and it was like between the turf and the ground, and it turns into a pool when it rains.
Therefore, the next morning's joke was always "Are you going to swimming today?" Indian players love jokes.
· Temperature was always around 45 degrees, occasional the sensible temperature exceeds 50 ℃. Therefore, practice could only be done in the early morning and/or evening.
· Each player brings their own water. Due to the harsh conditions, it is necessary to have a water break as many times as possible during practice.
Water break is Panipiyo! When I shout Darpiyo, everyone laughed,
※ Pani Piyo "Drink water", Darpiyo "Drink alcohol!", Dutopiyo mean "Drink milk!"
· Balls are old and used a lot so there is no grip and everything slips. The number of markers is small and there isn’t enough equipment to practice such as tackle dummies.
· Disk type markers brought from Japan were very useful, but local children playing disc markers as boomerangs, so even if you set them before practice, there are no disc markers in the place.
· Grand lines are set-up/marked by players. (Only for some special events, they get some help from children in the neighborhood. There are no marks of 22 m line or 10 m line so use surrounding resources such as trees as a marker.
· There are a few street-like lights available on the ground and it is not bright enough. However, strangely, even in the dark we can play a certain extent and for whatever reason, the players enjoyed playing in the dark.
· They always give priority to themselves, but as soon as something happened to their teammates, they would run to their teammates to make sure that everything is ok. Indian people are very passionate for their families and friends.
· Stray dogs were often found at the ground during practice and you would encounter many mosquitoes (like 100 of them).
Finally, I had three missions:
① Strengthen Indian national team
② Improve the Indian rugby culture
③ To become a bridge between Indian rugby and Japanese rugby
I do not know whether I achieved my mission.
I do not even know what I left to them.
However, the experiences that we had together were something that I am very proud of.
Indian rugby has a potential to be strong.
Why I say that? Because they enjoy playing the game.
I love Indian Rugby.
What I can say about this experience is that it doesn’t matter where you are from, where you go or what you do, rugby is rugby and rugby players are rugby players.
I crossed the ocean in order to contribute to the Indian national team, but I gained a valuable experience that I would like to study.
I would like to continue to exchange information and share knowledge so that I can continue to be the bridge between India and Japan.
Thank you for all the people involved in Indian rugby.
1 · 2 · 3 Bharat! !