South Asia Rugby Tournament: Army makes it 5 in a row

Army Reds defeated hosts Bombay Gymkhana 15-0 to lift the All-India and South Asia Rugby Tournament on Saturday. With the victory, the army side has won the tournament for the fifth year in a row and also avenged their second side’s, Army Green, loss in the semifinals.

With wet conditions, Army had the upper hand in the game as their forwards proved to be too strong for those of Bombay Gymkhana in the scrum. The home side kept their opponents from scoring for 22 minutes until they conceded a penalty.

Pushpendu Das put the first point on the scoreboard by the conversion.

Army put further distance between them and Bombay Gymkhana when their skipper Hemant Kumar scored a try. However, Das failed on the conversion and the lead remained at 8.

Bombay Gymkhana came out attacking in the second half and got close to the Army goal line on a couple of occasions but could not score. The armymen finished the game off in the last minute of play when Sujai Lama scored a try and Das made no mistake in the conversion this time.

A visibly jubilant Hemant Kumar said, “We were confident that no team could have beaten us in this competition and we have won. I told my boys ‘we are soldiers! We are warriors! And we should kill off all opposition.’ The conditions were not perfect but we made the most of them. To win the title five years in a row shows how strong we are.”