Nepal Manager Gopal Chhetri
Relative new comers to the Asian rugby family Nepal are aiming to learn a trick or two from the Asia Rugby Sevens Trophy 2017 (ARST) which kicks off tomorrow (Friday) at the Aspire Warm-up Track and Rugby Stadium.
The players from the picturesque country nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas begin their campaign in the two-day championship with a group match against hosts Qatar.
The group also has Philippines, with two top teams qualifying for the quarter-final stage of the tournament contested by 11 countries.
Nepal have an uphill task at hand in Doha to make it past the group stage.
Although they have come here well prepared with a one month long camp what they seriously lack is the international experience and exposure.
For the players from the Himalayas, this is just the third international tournament after the General Council of Asia Rugby voted in 2014 for Nepal to be awarded associate membership at its meeting in Bangkok.
Manager Gopal Chhetri said the tournament will be big learning experience for his boys.
“We are a new team of the Asia family. We are in the process of learning. We aim to learn a few things from the Qatar tournament. It is a learning process for us,” said Chhetri.
“We are representing our nation and we want to do our best. There should be no lack of efforts, the rest is up to God. Let us see what happens,” he added.
Chhetri said most of the team members who are in Qatar have been studying outside Nepal and picked up the game where they were doing the studies.
“The players that have come to Doha have been playing for the last 3-4 years. Most of the players in the team are students. A few of the students who have come from abroad also join us during their free time. Some of them hope to make a career out of playing rugby but let’s see how that goes,” he says.
The Nepal official informed that some of the top national team players who are with the army team could not make the trip to Qatar.
“The Army players, who are very good, haven’t been able to join us for this event due to a festival that the Army organises at this time of the year,” Chhetri said.
The 2014 membership of Asian rugby brought about a few changes in Nepal rugby said the Nepal official.
“We used to play at a small club level till then (prior to 2014). But we never went abroad to international tournaments. It is only in the last 2-3 years that we went outside Nepal. We have gone to India twice
now to play the Development Sevens. Our overall position in the standings was not good, but at a developmental stage that we are in, it was a good experience,” Chhetri said.
According to Chhetri, there are 100 odd rugby players in Nepal now, and the rugby movement is growing.
The 12-member team is led by skipper Nabin Giri and coached by Hari Tamang, while Krishna Chhetri is the vice-captain. Birat Shrestha, Sriram Shrestha, Prem Bahadur Koirala, Biratjung Aidee, Nirmal Lama,
Sunil Malla Thakuri, Gajendra Bahadur Rana, Ashok Shahi, Bikram Puri and Sanish Maharjan complete the team, which is coached by Hari Tamang.
