Asian Rugby Women’s Seven’s Trophy: Pakistan women to make international debut

14 players currently training at ongoing camp in Lahore

KARACHI: Pakistan women’s rugby team will be making their international debut when they participate in the 2017 Asian Rugby Women’s Seven’s Trophy in Laos next month.

Pakistan Rugby Union (PRU) officer and player Shazia Shabbir, who coordinates PRU events in addition to playing rugby, is among the 14 girls who are training at the ongoing camp in Lahore and she feels that it is a great achievement to be part of the national camp.

“It is a huge deal for us,” Shabbir told The Express Tribune. “We’ve worked at the local level but I can’t be more proud of the fact that we are finally holding a women’s national camp. If I get selected for the team, it will definitely be the biggest achievement for me.”

Shabbir added that there can only be positive change coming from Pakistan’s participation at the Asian Rugby Seven’s event as more women will now want to be part of the sport. “It is necessary to have international events. This event will pave way for more women to become part of the sport,” she said.

Pakistan would be playing against teams like Thailand and India, among other countries, at the event and PRU officer and women’s team manager Syed Moazzam Ali Shah believes the biggest challenge has been to prepare the women for the tournament.

“Rugby is a demanding sport,” said Shah. “We properly began the national championship for women by the end of 2015, so it has been a challenging task to help the girls learn about the sport keeping in mind that we are preparing them for an international event.”

He further added, “It’s a physical sport, so we had to make sure that the players aren’t afraid of getting hurt or tackling anymore. Now we can say that they are fearless; all of them have been working hard at the camp.”