Rugby India President Rahul Bose – “It’s never about winning and losing – it’s always about maximising potential.”

It’s the month of June, which means the second edition of the Rugby Premiere League (RPL) takes place in Hyderabad, India. We heard from Rugby India President Rahul Bose about the impact the franchise 7s tournament is having on rugby, but more importantly, how he and the union have helped spearhead changes to move the sport forward based on key fundamentals and principles.

National Team Indian Rugby Coaches 

Over recent years, Rugby India has progressively employed higher-calibre international coaches to lead their XVs and 7s teams as they compete in Asia Rugby tournaments, and now CASA. The goal for the Sevens programme is to qualify for the Olympics, while the XVs teams have also made strides.

On the calibre of coaches the union has signed, we asked Rahul Bose what the conversations are like when they appoint them, as some overseas coaches might not know much about rugby in India, or what their goals are.

Rahul Bose said, “Number one, what is the ecosystem of rugby in this country? What is the reality? And of course, the reality is that it’s played by the poorest of the poor, that we are a very new sport. 

Cricket was started in India around 1720, and the first Test team was formed in 1932, so they had 212 years. We started playing Test rugby when I played for India in the inaugural Test match against Singapore in 1998, so it’s been 26 years, which is a blip on the radar for any sport. 

I make it very clear that this is who we are. This is who plays the game. This is the kind of funding we get, and from where, and this is the kind of progress we’ve made. This is where we want to go – the immediate goal is the Olympics in 2032 (Rugby 7s).

Photo Credit – Rugby India – Rahul Bose Rugby India President

I lay that context down, then I talk about the culture. What is the culture that Indian rugby is going to stand for and already stands for? Sometimes we’ve been very successful in implementing that culture. Sometimes not so successful. 

So I speak about what we would like every Indian rugby player to exude and for people to imbibe about Rugby India, even if they didn’t know who we were. There is a tremendous sense of dignity, a sense of compassion, that whenever there is any trouble anywhere, the first person to reach out to help should be an Indian rugby player. 

And respect for everyone – on the field, between those four lines, it is non-negotiable that we never look at the person; we just look at the jersey. And it is all about the jersey. It’s all about doing things together, because there is no greater lesson in life that rugby teaches you – you can’t take a step forward alone. You need people with you, and the weakest link in a chain can drag the entire chain down.

The third thing I talk about is what we believe a coach does for the team, what we believe the correct coach can do for a team. It’s never about winning and losing. 

It’s about creating a system. It’s about creating a structure, both on and off the field, which is in harmony with the culture we want built, but gives the coach all the freedom to do whatever he or she likes to do or wants to do. We never interfere, as long as the coach has the culture in mind.

We are looking for a coach to extract the best out of the team as a unit, not the best out of players. If the players are performing subpar, but the team is performing out of their skin, we are happy. But if the players are performing above par, but the team is performing dismally or certainly below its potential, it is not fruitful for us. That’s not a fruitful outcome. 

It’s never about winning and losing – it’s always about maximising potential.”

Photo Credit – Rugby India

Rugby India’s Development Is Built On Core Principles – Rahul Bose

We recently spoke to the Hon Secretary General of Rugby India, Gerry Prabhu, who was elected into his position at the same time as Rahul Bose in 2021, and he helped shed light on the challenges they faced in implementing changes to the governing body and the sport.

When asked about his opinion about these challenges, especially implementing change in a big country in terms of size and population, Rahul explained the tenets and plans to develop the game in India and how to entice players to play. 

“I don’t think the tenets are difficult to implement. It’s very easy to implement – compassion, selflessness, respect. We just dropped somebody who didn’t display those qualities,” explained Bose.

“The coach needs to be in harmony with this – what is difficult if you can’t see the obvious good in keeping a team together, in everybody playing selflessly, without ego, and playing as a team? If you can’t get that to happen, then you should go elsewhere. If you’re not even making an effort to make that happen, then we wish you the best of luck. 

As far as I’m concerned, you must try to win, but you must win the right way. So you have to follow the right processes, and the results will follow. The processes that we’ve laid down are certainly not idealistic. They’re very practical, and I think this is stuff that can be implemented. 

We see it every day. I get into camp three or four times a month, and we watch to see what’s going on and see if players are coming half an hour before training. If players are focusing on skills and the sessions on the blackboard, and the strength and conditioning sessions. We are focusing on seeing what they’re talking to the psychologist about – not the content, that’s confidential – but what is the attitude towards the psychologist? 

We want to see whether they’re taking the nutritional guidelines seriously, or not. So you know, these are things that you can track, and when you track them, you know which player is actually respecting the process, respecting the jersey, and which player is not.

So I should say that we’ve had coaches who didn’t quite meet the standard that we want them to hold, and said goodbye. It is non-negotiable, and it is trackable.”

Photo Credit – Rugby India

What we have been impressed by is that we often hear unions say these things, but they do not follow through – by talking the talk and walking the walk. If everyone knows where they stand, we would hope it’s an easier environment for people to work in?

Rahul Bose responded by saying, “It’s not even easy internally. When I suggested that we have a psychologist, a lot of people turned to me and said, ‘You’re not even in the top 10 in the world or top 20. Why on earth would you need a psychologist?’

When I said we needed a nutritionist, they would say, ‘But these players hardly eat anything anyway’. And I said, ‘That’s precisely the reason why’. 

When I say that when we decide where we are going to have a domestic tournament, we have to decide by thinking about the players and where the weather is the least brutal and where the ground is the best, it was based on what I wanted as a player.

We have to put players at the centre of everything. So it’s not easy, even getting people to buy in internally. But touch wood, so far, and I have been President since December 18, 2021, in the last four and a half years, and with a lot of pushing, people have seen the impact and gone along with what we’ve been trying to make happen.

You asked a big question. How are you going to grow the game in the country? We have 760 districts in this country, with roughly 2 million people per district. It’s 1.5 billion people. Rugby is in 322 districts, so that should be enough. That’s 40% of the country, which is 600 million people. Reduce that to just 1%, and that’s 6 million people. 

You shouldn’t be complaining that you don’t have a player pool to play with. We have 100,000 players: 50,000 men, 50,000 women. Are you telling me we can’t put together three teams of 12 people each in the age grade, and the men and women – that’s six teams?

What we’ve decided to do is not spread to the other districts; we’ve decided to get deeper in the 40% of India that we’re in. How do we retain players who touch a ball for one second? How do we take retained players and push them up the system? What are they looking for? 

Their parents are looking for their children to be financially stable. Which parent doesn’t want their child to be financially stable in a poor nation? Their parents are looking for a pathway to national glory and international glory, and which player wouldn’t want that? So we are looking to see how we can actually make the retained players aspire to the national level, and then at the national level, how we can keep those players, as opposed to wearing the jersey two times, for example. 

It’s multi-layered, and these problems have nothing to do with rugby, but everything to do with the social, economic and socio-cultural realities region-wise. There are some parts of India where girls are married at the age of 18, and once they get married, they don’t play. 

There are some parts of India where girls aren’t even allowed to wear shorts. There are some parts of India where the boys have to work in the fields once they turn 15, because a pair of hands means money for that family. There are parts of India where, if the main breadwinner loses his job, then the boys have to step up. 

So we are fighting those realities, and you are not going to be able to combat that with money, because no amount of money is going to do that for everybody.”

Photo Credit – Rugby India

He continues, “What is it that we can do?

To attract people to the sport, the attraction will come with the fact that it’s so easy to play; we just need a ball and nothing else. Aside from that, as I said earlier, there are social and economic factors. We discussed the social, but let me give you an example of the economic factors.

One of the biggest hurdles for a player to continue playing rugby is the fear of getting injured. When we started insuring our national team players, the sense of relief amongst the players was eye-opening. 

If you look at the kind of victories we are getting, and the fact that with all the emoluments and all the kind of incentives that rugby is now putting in front of players, in terms of jobs and in terms of cash awards, it’s not a half-bad life if you make the top 30 players. You have a decent chance of making a decent amount of money that you can put in your parents’ pockets.” 

Rugby Premier League Season 2

Photo Credit – Rugby India

RPL season 2 is scheduled to be held from June 16–28 at Gachibowli Stadium in Hyderabad. HSBC has come on board as the Title sponsor for RPL – what does that mean to Rahul Bose?

“Having HSBC on board as a Title Sponsor in itself is wonderful, but what’s more significant is that they came in as big partners last year, and this year increased their role to Title Sponsorship.

That only goes to show the value this product has for them, because HSBC knows their rugby – there is no point in putting up a fancy presentation and sweeping them off their feet. They are past masters at gauging the potential as well as the current standard and interest around a certain competition. So, it’s fantastic news.”

One of the changes this year compared to the debut RPL season is that the location switches to Hyderabad from Mumbai. Is the plan to change venues every year?

“Yes, we want to move the location from one franchise’s city to another. If the RPL were to travel for home and away games, it would have to be a weekend here and a weekend there, and that would be logistically very clumsy, so for the time being we want it to be played at one location.”

Last year, the RPL Matches had 4 minutes a quarter + 2 minutes break between each quarter, so 22 minutes per match. We asked Rahul if he could explain why there was a need to change the standard 7s rugby rules in the context of the sport being played in a region where rugby is being introduced to new fans; it can be confusing to watch different tournaments with different rules (HSBC SVNS vs RPL vs local 7s tournament)?

Rahul explained, “I don’t think there is a change in any single rule; it’s just a change in the time – that’s it. The fidelity of every piece of Sevens Rugby has been maintained in this tournament. We tweaked the time from 16 minutes in a game, from 7 minutes with a 2-minute half-time and 7 minutes, to 4 minutes a quarter + 2 minutes break between each quarter, which means it’s more intense and no-holds-barred rugby for those 4 minutes, and nobody has to hold anything back.

There is a tremendous amount of flexibility, and players can really give their all. It’s also great for coaches, as they have 14 players to use and can rotate, select, and mix and match, creating a very exciting challenge for them. The third reason is that it is great for commercial time, as it creates 6 minutes of commercial time, whereas a normal game would have 2 minutes. 

Finally, when you have Indian players playing against the best international players, it’s fast and furious for 4 minutes, and there will be little to choose from between the local and foreign players. It lends to a more competitive equaliser of energy to have this length of time.”

Photo Credit – Rugby India

Finally, what is he looking forward to most and what excites him about RPL season 2?

“The most exciting thing for any fan of rugby, and that’s what I consider myself to be, is the quality of rugby being played, and that depends on the quality of players. Just look at the list of players we have this year, and last year was super impressive with the likes of Perry Baker, Rosco Specman, Terry Kennedy, and this year we have such exciting talent from 19 countries, which is extraordinary,” said Bose.

“We have a strong presence from France and South Africa this year; we have a bolstered presence from New Zealand, Australia, and the Fijians, as well as having the Spanish and Argentines coming back – so it’s a great bunch. 

What I am most excited about is the types of players, but I would be lying if I didn’t say I was equally excited by the fact that we have the RPL women this year.

The first women’s game with the Indian women’s players on these teams, and the first Indian woman player tackling one of these famous international players, is going to be electric.

It will be doing things for this game that no one has imagined. To see women play a franchise sport is very rare. I can only think of cricket right now. So to see our Indian women play top international talent in a franchise format in rugby is something I dreamt of when we first thought of this league.

The third thing that excites me is about RPL Season 2, which is not only that we are on a television platform (Star Sports) and an online platform (JioHotstar), but we are also on YouTube on Star Sports, which is where we will be putting up the extended highlights of every game.

The new venue (Gachibowli Stadium) and city are beautiful, and the plans we have for the stadium will make it look even more spectacular. 

It’s bigger, better, and more competitive – it’s literally RPL 2.0”

Asian Rugby News 2026

• Gerry Prabhu On CASA, Rugby India’s Growth, and RPL Season 2.
• HSBC Rugby Premier League Season 2 Adds Four Women’s Franchises: Squad Previews.
• Asian International Rugby Tournaments 2026.
• Ruby Tui – ‘I See Things As A Sign That It’s Only Going To Get Better’.