Touch Rugby, the first of its kind Inter School Competition 2016, by Jungle Crows Foundation is the talk of the city schools recently. Seven schools took part in this competition which was a day long tournament for both boys and girls held separately at the Jungle Crows field on Maidan. The event is an in initiative to promote this exciting game amongst the youngsters. When the founder, Paul Walsh of Jungle Crows Foundation was enquired about this event, he informed how they had started working with a couple of city schools some 2-3 months back and how encouraging the response has been. He pointed out the senior players and coaches visiting the schools twice to train the middle school students (class V-VIII) and how it is proving fruitful for the senior players too. After all, the experience was of a different kind as they had to work in a disciplined set-up with the students. He also referred why touch rugby was taught as it can be played on both concrete and grassy surfaces. Furthermore, the chance of injury in this type of rugby is less than the conventional “American football”.
Shri Shikshayatan emerged as the champion among girls in under 14 category, and Tara School of Howrah bagged the winners trophy in the boys category. Jatin Shaw, a class VI student and participant of the winning team when asked about the experience informed how he enjoyed learning the game from the Jungle Crows, with whom he has been taking coaching. He was elated because it’s not every day that one gets to win a rugby tournament in India! The final was a close contest with Taratala Adarsh Vidyalaya facing defeat at the hands of the Tara School Howrah team 4-3. In the girls counterpart of the event, the final saw Flower 2 school defeated by the Sri Shikshayatan Girl’s school 4-2. Sri Sri Academy and Tara School Howrah won the third place respectively in boys and girls category respectively.
According to Arnav kumar Shaw, the sports teacher at Sri Sri Academy, the students have started taking genuine interest for the game and the tournament provided a boost for their enthusiasm. He informed that right now 18 students from class V and VI are learning the game under the training of Jungle Crow coaches, who conduct training sessions twice a week before school hours and the students are not complaining about this schedule!
Source: http://goo.gl/5Ogp3A
