By IANS
Kolkata : Jungle Crows are ready to take on the participants from across the world in the under-14 world rugby cup meet at Esher, England, from September 27 to 29.
The rugby fiesta involving 10 teams will also feature the Indian team ‘Jungle Crows’, with 12 tribal boys from the interiors of Orissa in the team.
“I think the organisers here have put up a brilliant team and I am sure these boys will make India proud. This will be a wonderful learning experience for them and I hope they will make full use of it,” British Deputy High Commissioner Simon Wilson said.
The team will play under the banner of Jungle crows, a Kolkata team formed in 2004.
Paul Walsh, one of the founder members of Jungle Crows said, “We had received an invitation from ‘Tour Aid’ to participate in the ten nations tournament.”
“We then decided to pick these players from the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) in Bhubaneshwar. Since our arrival in 2004, we improved considerably and conducted various programmes to popularise rugby in every corner of India,” he said.
KISS provides boarding school education to 4,000 tribal students in the region and has a strong rugby culture.
The Indian side has been placed in Group II and will play their first match against Zambian side Kitwe Minors. The other three teams in the group are Ingwe (Swaziland), Maasai Cheetahs (Kenya) and RC Ariesul Spartans (Romania).
Group I has teams like Kambujabutra (Cambodia), Langa Lions (South Africa), Ciorescu School (Moldova), Mountain Gorillas (Rwanda) and Snow Leopards (Kazakhstan).
Coach Sailen Tudu expressed confidence in the team. “We have trained together for over four months. All the boys are from the tribal area and have the right physical attributes to succeed in body contact sports like rugby,” he said.
Squad: Raj Kishore Murmu (captain), Babula Melaka, Hadidhangada Majhi, Bikash Chandra Murmu, Chhitaranjan Murmu, Niranjan Biswal, Barial Beshra, Bukai Hansdah, Sahadev Majhi, Narsingh Kerai, Ganesh Hembram, Gouranga Jamuda.
Rudrakesh Jena (teacher), James Matthew (manager) and Sailen Tudu and Sanjay Patra (coach)