Bhubaneswar: The Rugby World Cup 2019 trophy which had arrived in the city Thursday evening was unveiled at the KISS campus Friday. The trophy had earlier been taken to Delhi and Mumbai.
Approximately 27,000 students of KISS aged between 11 and 14 years were presented in the presence of the president of the Asian Rugby Football Union, Aga Hussain and Indian Rugby Football Union, general manager Naseer Hussain. The trophy will leave Saturday for Japan which is hosting the World Cup, the first Asian country to do so, September 20 to November 2, 2019.
“India’s performance graph in recent years has gone up at the international level with some brilliant performances. We had talks with CM Naveen Patnaik and the sports department officials of Odisha earlier in the day at the Secretariat. Discussions ranged on setting up a high performance academy for talented youngsters,” said Hussain.
Naseer also informed that the School Nationals for U-14, U-17 and U-19 categories for boys and girls and the University Nationals will be played here end December and early January next year. The city is also scheduled to host Asia Rugby Sevens U-18 girls’ Championships in January next year.
Meanwhile Patnaik said in a release that he hoped Odisha, the nursery of rugby in India will produce many more players in the future. “I wish to encourage more kids to come forward and play the sport of rugby,” Patnaik said.