Maharashtra State Police thrash CCFC in ‘All India & South Asia Rugby Championship 2015'

Maharashtra State Police

Maharashtra State Police (MSP) defeated Calcutta Cricket & Football Club (CCFC)- a team which has Rugby history of 150 years by 10-8 in the quarter finals of the 82nd edition of ‘All India & South Asia Rugby Championship 2015’.

Bombay Gymkhana has organised the IRFU’s Division1 Rugby tournament to celebrate Clubs’ 125 years of Rugby in the country. The tournament is being held at Bombay Gymkhana grounds from October 11 to Oct 17, 2015. A total of nine teams across the country are participating in the championship. The participant teams are Indian Army, Delhi Hurricane, Bombay Gymkhana, CCFC, Jungle Crows (Kolkata), Bangalore RFC, Maharashtra state Police (MSP), Bhubaneshwar RFC and YRC (Kolkata). This premier Indian tournament also coincides with the Rugby World Cup 2015.

Both the teams- CCFC and MSP were very aggressive right from the start in what was set to be a tightly contested game. CCFC’s No 8 player, Jovel Katsa scored the first try in the first 15 minutes of the game and 10 minutes later using the penalty opportunity against MSP, CCFC’s Full back Davit Gevorgyan successfully booted the penalty conversion and leaded the score to 8 -0 in the first half.

In the second half both teams notched up their attacks. With their tight defence, CCFC was able to hold off the opponents until in the 49 minutes MSP winger Martand funde broke the defence line and scored the first try for MSP. MSP’s defence was very aggressive and didn’t let CCFC score single try against them in the second half. And at the last minutes of the game MSP’s another winger Pappu Todkar made the run from their 22 and scored the try and secured the game for MSP by 10-8.

MSP captain Deva said, “This time we had worked very hard for the title, and our attack by Backs and defence by Forwards strategy worked very well. Our forwards did a commendable job of holding the CCFC’s heavy forward pack for the second half. Now the team is excited to play Indian ARMY in the semi Final."