In another attempt to help the city’s slum children, Doorstep, an NGO that works for the education of the kids, also enrolled them in an inter-school rugby tournament, held last week at the Bombay Gymkhana.
Although the tournament was held only for schools from South Mumbai, an exception was made for Doorstep, which organised a motley team of kids from different slums across the city, who study in different municipal schools too. The Doorstep team surprised their more fancied and experienced opponents with their smooth passing and slick moves. Though they eventually crashed out in the semi-final, their performance is incredible given that the players knew nothing about the sport of rugby till two weeks ago.
Their coach Naresh Chauhan, himself an ex-student at Doorstep, plays rugby for the Mumbai Magicians. When he heard about the inter-school tournament, he set about teaching the sport to the youngsters. “It’s hard to believe that they have been playing for only one week. They seem to know so much about the sport; details like when to pass and how to move,” he said, adding that so far the kids have only been playing touch rugby, but they soon plan to mature into the full contact version. “There is another inter-school rugby tournament next week which would have full contact rugby. We want to learn the game by then and play well again.”
Mumbai Mirror
WHAT AN INTERESTING ARTICLE!
Wow, I did not know there was another kind of football.
What is also interesting is that ( according to a wikipedia page ) it has its roots on a Greek game ( which does not surprise me because The Bible talks about sports competitions within the Greeks or Romans)..
But even more interesting ( and could even sound funny, but I am sure it is true ) that it backs to the bronze age.
However the most important thing in here is the work Mr. Naresh Chauhan is trying to accomplish with these children, fantastic.
Thank you, always learning something interesting!