Rock for rugby

At the Asia Rugby Sevens Women’s Trophy matches played in Brunei on October 20 and 21, 2018, the Indian team, captained by Vahbiz Bharucha, won the plate final (playoff between the losers of both the semifinals), standing fifth in the tournament. Besides India, nine other countries vied for the Trophy: Brunei, Guam, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines and Uzbekistan, as notes the website asiarugby.com

Vahbiz Bharucha (inset; top, 4^th from l; above, 5^th from l) at the Asia Rugby Sevens Women’s meet

Of the five matches India played, they won against Nepal, Pakistan and Indonesia and lost against Uzbekistan and Philippines. The High Commissioner of India in Brunei, Nagma Mallick met the team and supported it in its inaugural match. Participating under the aegis of the Indian Rugby Football Union, the women’s team was supported by Societe Generale, the financial partner of Rugby India. "Our Indian women’s team has made us proud on a number of occasions with their brilliant performances at the Asian level,” Rugby India secretary general Mahesh Mathai was quoted on the website asiarugby.com
The final training and selection camp before the Brunei meet was held at the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa in October when a South African coach Ludwiche Van Deventer "brought in a lot of advanced techniques to the game pattern and trained us completely differently,” notes an email from Khusnaz Jogi who has been regularly playing rugby with Bharucha for the RFS Pune Rugby Club in Poona under coach Surhud Khare.
Earlier in the year Bharucha and Jogi were selected for the West Zone XV’s team after rigorous training sessions that sometimes required them to be on the field four times a day. At the 2018 National Inter Zonal Rugby XV’s Championship in Amritsar, the West Zone team captained by Bharucha emerged champions. Suffering from an ankle injury, Jogi was required to rest her foot.
Twenty-four-year-old Bharucha is a physiotherapist by profession (see "Rooting for Rugby,” Sports, Parsiana, May 21, 2017) while 23-year-old Jogi (see "All for the ball,” Sports, Parsiana, May 21, 2017) works for Multi Fit in sales and marketing.