Crazy About Rugby

I've been taking some time off and helping spread sports and particularly rugby in the rural areas around Pune. This is a project started by two of the rugby organizations in Pune - RFS Pune and KFANDRA .

Here are some pictures from Nanegaon which is about 40 km westwards of Pune. A friend farms here and its through him that we have started this initiative:

That's me looking very fit, surrounded by rugby crazy kids.

All Hands in groups of three:

The Pop-Up pass routine:

 

 Keen eyes and hands- what a picturesque setting to a sports scene not very common in rural India:

 All this action takes place against the backdrop of the vast layered Deccan Basalts. The village is quite attractive and has some of the classic elements and atmosphere of rural India like this temple square:

The countryside around is lush and there are some pretty picnic spots for the tired and weary - a basalt stream bed:

The idea is to encourage children to learn discipline, team work and good work ethics through sports. So far the children love taking part in this activity and we plan to keep this program running for the foreseeable future.

Budding Geologists On The Rugby Pitch

Every weekend one of the coaches gives a word quiz to our soccer and rugby kids, ages 8 to 10. Last Saturday it was my turn and I asked about Gondwanaland. .. tell me all about it.

Come Monday and I got three correct answers... the kids had read up and got the right ideas about continents being in different places and attached to other continents in the past.. they also told me that the present arrangement of continents will change in the future.. impressive for 10 year old's

Here are the winners (they do it for the chocolate bars):

Meanwhile we had our first pre-monsoon thunderstorms last week. It was just a massive cloud burst turning the ground into a swimming pool.

All set for rugby season over here.