Cricket and hockey have traditionally been the common thread running through India and Pakistan’s sporting history. Can rugby be added to the list? Going by recent results, maybe not. The neighbours failed to make an impact on first day of the Mumbai Sevens, the third-ranked event in the HSBC Asian Sevens Series at the Bombay Gymkhana Club on Saturday.
India struggled on day one, dropping games against top-seed Hong Kong (0-43), Thailand (0-42) and UAE (14-24). Indian captain Rohaan Sethna admitted his team were below par and far from their best in the tournament. “We clearly didn’t play to our potential. We underperformed against Thailand and UAE.”
Sethna reminded, however, that India started well against Hong Kong. “We started off well. For the first few minutes none of the teams scored. But from there on, we went downward. They (Hong Kong) are such a great team; we expected such an outcome,” he said referring to the Hong Kong game. He felt that India had let themselves down. “We lost composure against Thailand and UAE, games we could have easily won.”
Pakistan were no less inconsistent. They lost to Chinese Taipei 0-45, thrashed 7-38 by Korea and suffered a defeat to Kazakhstan 0-38. Pakistan captain Umer Islam Butt said his side could only get better from here. They were on the same boat as India who couldn’t participate in the first two series of Asian 7s held in Borneo, Malaysia and Shanghai due to financial constraints. “Till the time we boarded the flight, there was an air of uncertainty looming over us,” said Butt.
Butt could relate to the lack of following for rugby in India. “Even before 2000, I wasn’t aware that there was a sport like rugby. Only when I started playing for the Lahore Rugby Football Club that I took it upon myself to popularise the sport. Our situation is similar to that in India.”