Rugby Premier League to start on June 1 with six teams, 30 foreign players

Mumbai, April 4 (IANS) Some of the top names in Rugby 7s like Perry Baker of the United States, a two-time World Rugby 7s Player of the Year and three-time Olympian and South Africa's Rosko Speckman, a two-time Olympic bronze medal winner, will be along the 30 marquee players that will grace the six franchises of the inaugural Rugby Premier League (RPL), which will be played in Mumbai from June 1 to 15, 2025.

To be held at the Mumbai Football Arena in suburban Andheri, the world's first city-based franchise rugby league will have the same number of top Indian players rubbing shoulders with the international starts in the unique rugby 7s format, the action-packed fast-paced version of the sport considered as the T20 of rugby.

Rugby India is bringing out this league in collaboration with GMR Sports and has received approval and cooperation from World Rugby, the sports global governing body that has created a special window for Rugby Premier League towards the end of the international season, making it possible for the top talent in the sport to take up contracts in India.

The inaugural season of the RPL will be broadcast on Star Sports and will be live-streamed on Jio HotStar. With the support of World Rugby, the league has roped in some top foreign coaches and support staff for the teams.

The six franchises that were unveiled here on Friday are -- Bengaluru Bravehearts, Chennai Bulls, Delhi Redz, Hyderabad Heroes, Kalinga Black Tigers, and Mumbai Dreamers.

RPL has roped in 30 marquee international players from powerhouse Rugby 7s nations like New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Fiji, Argentina, Great Britain, Ireland, the USA, and Spain.

Each team will comprise five foreign players, five domestic players, and three from bridge nations -- countries in the second and third tier in the world rugby hierarchy.

Each match will be of 16-minute duration divided into four quarters. With the clock being stopped for each transgression, decision, and injury, each match will be of 23-30 minute duration.

"The league has been six years in the making, but we wanted to do everything right. The first extraordinary development came thanks to World Rugby, who gave us a 15-day window in which no international rugby 7s would be played anywhere in the world. This made the best global rugby players available to us," noted actor and former India captain Rahul Bose, President of Rugby India, told a press conference here on Friday.

"From there to partnering with GMR Sports and creating the best conditions for both the international players as well as our Indian players; choosing some of the most intelligent, committed team owners and getting a top class broadcast partner in JioHotstar, it’s been a helluva ride. Rugby 7s is one of the most attractive television sports in modern history," said Bose, who was part of the first Indian team to participate in international rugby tournaments in the late 1990s.

Rugby Premier League has also roped in some of the most renowned rugby coaches in the world to mentor the six teams. They are Mike Friday (Former USA 7s Head Coach), Ben Gollings (England 7s Legend, Former Fiji 7s Head Coach), DJ Forbes (New Zealand 7s Icon), Tomasi Cama (New Zealand 7s Head Coach, New Zealand 7s Legend), Paco Hernandez (Spain 7s Head Coach) and Tim Walsh (Australia Women’s 7s Head Coach).

The league will also feature 30 Indian players selected from an auction pool of 71, providing them with a historic platform to compete alongside international legends.

On Friday, RPL conducted a draft to pick the marquee players for each side. Rahul Bose said each of the top marquee players will get anything between US dollars 10,000 to 20,000 for this league.

An auction was conducted for the top Indian players in which Mohit Khatry, the captain of the Indian rugby 7s team went for Rs 4.5 lakh.

"A lot of people don't know that rugby is played in more than 300 of the 750-odd districts in the country. Though it does not figure regularly in mainstream media, in these 300 villages somebody will definitely raise hands if you call out rugby," said Bose.

--IANS

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