India ranked 1 globally in World Rugby's outreach programme

According to the latest statistics report published by World Rugby, India has the highest participants globally in terms of federation's outreach programme. World Rugby's Get Into Rugby (GIR) program saw 2,14,053 new participants in the country, edging past Japan, hosts of the 2019 Rugby World Cup and South Africa, winners of the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

Rugby India adopted World Rugby's GIR programme in 2013, aimed at promoting the sport globally. The Get Into Rugby programme is an integral part of the World Rugby strategy to grow the Game globally in partnership with its regional associations and unions.

The aim of the programme is to encourage players of all ages to Try, Play and Stay in Rugby. In the three Try, Play and Stay stages, there are a series of modules which are designed to take a player with no experience of Rugby progressively, in a safe and progressive environment, from an introductory level to being a player who can enjoy all forms of the Game and its values.

Societe Generale, one of the largest European financial services groups partnered with Rugby India since 2016 to train, develop and groom national level players. As per the report, India saw a massive growth in the number of players playing Rugby from 2016 to 2020.

The total numbers of Male Players have grown from 61,194 in 2016 to 112,712 in 2019. That represents an 85% increase over 3 years.

The total numbers of Female Players have grown from 42,032 in 2016 to 101,341 in 2019. This represents a 141 % increase over the last 3 years.

Mr. Mahesh Mathai, President, Rugby India said, “The GIR initiative has given Rugby the much-needed boost in India. The increasing numbers and growing interest in the sport is testament to the work undertaken by Rugby India. When it comes to growing rugby nationally, resources and fund allocation remains to be a deterrent. Thanks to the support received from Asia Rugby , World Rugby and Societe Generale, not only can we increase the participation from the youth but also provide our age-grade rugby teams an opportunity to compete in international tournaments. We are extremely positive and ambitious about seeing huge growth of Rugby in India in the coming years.”

Mr. Nasser Hussain, CEO, Rugby India said, “The response to the GIR program has been overwhelming, especially with respect to age-grade participation from across the country. The growing numbers, particularly in the Women’s game, have ensured we establish a structured pathway for these young players to continue to be involved in the game. Over the years, we have seen some quality talent emerge from the GIR program – we are proud to mention that some of them have now advanced onto representing the country at the International level. We are thankful to Societe Generale for their unconditional support and commitment towards the grassroots development as well as the high-performance level”.

The GIR initiative represents a major breakthrough for India Rugby. Through the 3 stages of Get Into Rugby program implemented across India, schools have been able to gradually progress to 7-a-side rugby in the last few years. The players who represented their schools in the first two phases (TRY and PLAY phases of the GIR program) can then move to the third phase and get selected to play for their district and their state (STAY phase of the program).