Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, July 26: Orissa women produced a scintillating show Sunday to win the Senior National Rugby 7s championships at Patna. In the final they defeated West Bengal 27-5.
Orissa, who were firm favourites to win the championships, blanked hosts Bihar 41-0 in the semifinal earlier in the day. In the final, they faced a strong West Bengal side but made mincemeat out of the opposition. Skipper Bhagyalaxmi Barik emerged top scorer in the final with eight tries. Hopi Majhi and Hiramani Soren (two tries each) also played well for the winners.
“We were firm favourites from the beginning. The girls were much confident after winning the gold medal at National Games. Our defence was strong. Before the final, none of the other teams were able to score against us,” assistant coach of Orissa, Dhiren Kumar Rout stated over the phone.
The men however failed to impress finishing sixth losing to Delhi 7-15. “We were victimised by some bad decisions. But that can happen in any tournament. There were some technical difficulties on our part also,” Dhiren added.
Football coaching camp
The three-day long AIFF-FIFA grassroot coaching course concluded Sunday at the Satyabrata Stadium in Cuttack. The participants were given basic coaching skills under the supervision of AIFF representative Anju Turambekar along with Indian U-14 women’s team assistant coach Sradhanjali Samantray. Rushinath Sahoo and Abhijit Paul (both joint secretaries of FAO) along with AIFF representative Haren Swain were present at the closing ceremony.