Odisha underlined their dominance in Indian rugby by winning both the boys’ and girls’ crowns in the ‘Societe Generale Junior (boys’ and girls’ under-18) National Rugby Sevens Championship 2016’, played at the Bombay Gymkhana ground on Friday. The all-India Championship is being conducted by Rugby India, in association with Societe Generale and Rugby Association of Maharashtra (RAM).
Champions… Odisha girls’, the proud winners pose with the Champions Trophy
In the boys’ final, the superior Odisha lads showed their mettle by registering an authoritative 26-0 victory against Tamil Nadu. Ajit Kumar played a stellar role with two tries and three conversions in leading Odisha to victory. Playing a good supporting role was Suguda Majhi who produced two tries to complete Odisha’s domination.
Meanwhile, the Odisha girl’s, who are the defending champs were also in complete command against West Bengal and romped to a 21-5 win to extend their hold on the title. Dominating play from the start Odisha comfortably broke through the Bengal defence with Kavita Kasturi, Rajani Sabar and Bupuni Lagori, all scoring a try each. On all three occasions Sumitra Nayak made no mistake with the conversions. Laxmi Oraon got the lone try for West Bengal.
: Champions… Odisha boys’, the proud winners pose with the Champions Trophy
In the third place matches, Bihar girl’s defeated Uttar Pradesh 36-0 and West Bengal lads outplayed Bihar 34-0.
Earlier in the semi-finals, Odisha lads got the better of defending champions West Bengal 10-5 and Tamil Nadu came up with a last ditch effort to scrape past Bihar 12-10 in an absorbing and hard-fought contest. With the clocking ticking away, the southern outfit trailed 5-10 before Pushkaraj broke through the Bihar defence for a timely try to level scores and then did well to score two more points from the conversion, which helped Tamil Nadu sneak into the final.
In the women’s semi-finals, Odisha and West Bengal both scored easy wins to set up a clash in the final. Holders Odisha defeated Uttar Pradesh 31-0 and Bengal tamed Bihar 22-0.
Maharashtra’s challenge came to a tame end as both the boys’ and girls’ lost out in the quarter-final round. The state lads came a cropper losing 0-24 to Odisha while the girls’ narrowly lost to Uttar Pradesh 5-7.
Results: Girls’ – Final: Odisha 21 (Kavita Kasturi 1 try, Rajani Sabar 1 try, Bupuni Lagori 1 try, Sumitra Nayak 3 conversions) beat West Bengal 5 (Laxmi Oraon 1 try).
Third place: Bihar bt Uttar Pradesh 36-0.
Semi-finals: Odisha bt Uttar Pradesh 31-0; West Bengal bt Bihar 22-0.
Boys’ –Final: Odisha 26 (Ajit Kumar 2 tries, 3 conversions, Suguda Majhi 2 tries) beat Tamil Nadu 0.
Third place: West Bengal bt Bihar 34-0.
Semi-final: Odisha bt West Bengal 10-5, Tamil Nadu bt Bihar 12-10.