Exclusive/ Coach Waisale Serevi Strives to Ignite National Passion for Rugby in India and Break Barriers

Rugby is deeply rooted in the country of India as the sport was played during the British era. However, the fanfare over it substantially declined as other disciplines like cricket and football took pace among the sports fans. With Kabaddi and Hockey rapidly gaining recognition, a man has taken up the task to revitalize Rugby in India and restore its glory, that it had back in the days. 

Republic sat down with ‘The King of Sevens’ Waisale Serevi, Head Coach of the Indian Men's and Women's Rugby Teams, where we spoke about the sport's deep ties with India. He also opened up on his passionate journey to help Team India reach the top levels. We also delved into the past on how the World Rugby Hall of Famer helped introduce the sport in the Olympics. He also spoke on his humble beginnings in Fiji and how playing on a Sunday got him in trouble as a kid.

Here are the excerpts from the interview  

1. India has a long history with rugby. However, the nation's population is less knowledgeable about the sport. The nation's popular sports are being developed at grassroots levels. Is rugby's foundation strong from the ground up?

I think rugby, I believe it's been in India longer than Fiji. When I saw a rugby club there what do you call? I forgot the name. CCFC or something. I saw the years it started and I thought they were like ahead. Rugby has been here for a while. More than Fiji. And we don't have that population like in India. But we still made it to the top. We win World Cups in sevens and two Olympics and one silver in sevens rugby.
So, for me, I think the first step to take is to try and do rugby awareness so that the people of India can know. At the moment, maybe 0.5 per cent of the 99.95 per cent, they don't know rugby. Maybe 5 per cent or 1 per cent or 0.1 per cent knows rugby at the moment, as we speak.

But the population, yes, there's a big population here. And I believe we cannot all play cricket. We cannot all play soccer. We cannot all play basketball. We cannot all play lacrosse or any sports. There, you must be good at something. For me, in the U.S., I go around a lot of states and do rugby camps and do awareness and create rugby teams and create kids. And for me, like you said, it's not a known sport. Yes, I agree. But I believe there are strong, big rugby players somewhere in India, somewhere in this place. 

The first thing, first, it is awareness. It's like, for example, I would love to go to, for example, if I go to Bombay or wherever, do rugby camps and try and go to schools and introduce the sport of rugby, because rugby, it is a great sport and it has core values, which is really important for rugby. So that's the thinking that the first thing I believe is to get the awareness of rugby. It's been played all over the world and it is a good sport. It has core values like respect, discipline, camaraderie and stuff. So I believe it is a good sport. And I've seen rugby players, rugby players that I have with me, they are good. Training them and getting them to know the little ABC 1, 2, and 3 of the sport. Now they are learning and they have been progressing well so far.

2. Is it expensive for a budding sportsperson to take up the sport of rugby in the future?

I believe rugby is the cheapest sport you can play. The only thing you need is rugby boots, shorts, a T-shirt and socks. Then you go play rugby. For example, for American football, you have to buy padding and all these things. In other sports, they use a lot of gear. But rugby, you just need a rugby boots, a shorts and a T-shirt. You are good for rugby. And it's not that expensive. And I believe it's a good sport for anyone, any shapes or sizes. You have a place in rugby, a position in rugby.

3. For safety, American football players don shoulder pads and helmets. Since rugby is a contact sport, injuries are likely to occur. How do you plan to heal from an injury as a player? How do you get ready for that?

I believe in any sports, they have their own injuries. You get injured in any other sports. But rugby, I can say it's a physical sport. Sometimes you get injured. But we train the players. Safety first. Now the law of rugby has changed a lot since the last 15 years or 10 years. It has changed for the safety of the players, which is, really, really good. I believe the only thing is we always teach players how to contact. It's called pre-contact. How to tackle. How to use the shoulder. How to take that player. Now in rugby, when you tackle a player, you cannot hit him and he flies that way and you fly this way. No, it's not allowed anymore. Before it was okay. Now you have to tackle the player. You have to wrap and you have to take him to the ground.

Those are the safety measurements that World Rugby has taken. And I believe the coaches, they teach the players all the basic skills, all the fundamental skills of how to catch, how to pass before you go into contact. What are the key points you need to do? When you get tackled, how do you place the ball and stuff so you're safe? So I believe that is what we are teaching the players. And if they do that properly, then it's good. And the other thing is fitness. You have to go to the gym and do weights in the off-season. You have to run to stay conditioning because of the non-stop of the games. And I believe from my point of view, yes, the way it is, it looks tough, but I believe we have the necessary awareness and coaching that helps players to get better.

4. India has a wide range of sports leagues. There is the PKL for Kabaddi, the ISL for football, and the IPL for cricket. In response to the fans' enthusiasm for the game, HIL is also returning. Will a national rugby Sevens competition contribute to increased recognition?

I believe commercial-wise, TV-wise, for the awareness, I believe that is not very far. In the future, we'll try and get rugby like the nationals, India, Rugby India National Sevens, where all states, they come in competition. I just hope that they get the coverage, maybe for one-hour coverage, maybe the semi-final, final, boys and girls, and U-18 and U-18 girls. I believe just for that period, it's only seven minutes, fourteen, twenty-one. So it's like 21 minutes. So it's not like one hour, maybe two hours of putting it on TV. So on the side of awareness for rugby, that will be a great tool. Because people will watch and they will see, oh, this is rugby. And what we are trying to do now is to try and train the boys and girls and U18 to try and compete at the Asia Games in October, end of September, so that they can try and get medals, medal contenders, and represent India well.

Another awareness I was thinking to go into, like example, a state, maybe West Bengal, since we're here, do a rugby camp, and like a combined camp. I always do that in the US, and invite Kabaddi players, invite soccer players, invite basketball players, invite volleyball players. All sports, they can come and try rugby.
You know, you're not hitting each other just to try and pass the ball around. So when they go back, there might be some players there that would love to stay. That's what happened in the US.
Even football players, they come and try rugby, they say, I want to stay, I don't want to go back. So they stayed and played rugby. So those are the key important things for rugby to be much better known.
Every big thing starts with a small thing. We need to improve day by day, month by month, week by week, year by year.

So three things I would love to see. One is going to schools and introducing the sport of rugby. Two, the rugby awareness, like combined camps. Three is what we just talked about, you know, television coverage, just to show that rugby is here. And I believe out there in the whole world now, they are texting me, friends from World Rugby, from Australia, New Zealand, all over the world, Fiji, they're texting me, oh, we're so happy you're in India, trying to grow the game there. So that's what I believe the three things we should do.

5. As everyone is aware, the Summer Olympics in 2024 came to an end, and the Rugby Sevens were one of the events. It turns out that Sir Waisale is the reason for Rugby Sevens to be recognized as an Olympic sport. Could you just walk us through on how that panned out?

Since I was playing in that era when I was playing, that is like maybe 20, or 30 years ago. And I was playing good rugby, entertaining rugby. And not only me, other teams, it was like competitive. And everybody will always come, it's always a full stadium, they watch, oh, let's go and watch, because of the way we were playing. And then after World Rugby, it was the late Bernard Lapasset from France. He was the, he passed away and he asked me whether rugby, that World Rugby can go to IOC to be part of, to talk to them and persuade for rugby. And I said, yeah, sure. That is the best thing ever. Rugby has the World Cup, Pan Pacific, Asia Games, all-American tournaments, Caribbean, African tournaments. The only thing that rugby needs is the Olympics. And the Olympics needs rugby. It's more audience. And then it was good that I was so happy. It was an honour and privilege for me to be part of World Rugby, going to IOC. I went three times to persuade them.

And then the last one in Queenstown in New Zealand, I believe that was where it like, yes, we missed London 2012. And 2013-14, we made it. It was agreed in Copenhagen that rugby should be included in the Olympics.
And even though I didn't play for Fiji, but I was happy to be part of the bidding team representing Fiji and representing the whole rugby nation to go to IOC with the late John Alom and a couple of other senior players from other countries. And in the end, the first Olympics, we won our first-ever gold medal in 2016 in Rio. Then in Japan, again, we won the second medal, one gold and one bronze for the girls. And this year in France, we have one gold, one silver. So it was an honour and privilege for me to represent rugby to get into the Olympics.

6. Speaking of the Olympics, India's rugby team has been playing well lately. Do you believe that an Indian team will play in the Olympic Rugby Sevens in the future?

Like I said, every big thing starts with a small thing. The first thing first, we need to take is to try and get as many rugby awareness in the country to try and get more and more, maybe triple or four-ple or whatever, the amount of players that are playing now. It is good that they have rugby in other states that are here, which is good. And I believe there are more rugby players out there. The more we get those players, the more we upskill them. I believe nothing is impossible. We have some good facilities here. We've seen now SAI [Sports Authority of India] giving us the facility in West Bengal and they are trying to help us with this, which is good.

The most important thing is to try and get the awareness and try and scout as many players and do rugby camps all over the state and get as many into the system so that we can train and track them. And now we have the goals to go to the Asian Games. I am here also to try and give a hand and help Rugby India. I think that is the goal. That's where we want to go. We don't want to stay where we are. That is what life is all about. You need to improve day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year. So the most important thing, is what step to take. We are at the right step now. We are at the right place. Now the next step, it's crucial. What we want to do first, to get awareness. Second, to get the interest of players to come and play. Try Rugby. It's a family sport. It's all about a team, not an individual.

7. What distinguishes a rugby player from other sporting disciplines?

I think Rugby, as I say, it has core values and it's all about helping people. It is all about the team. It's individual. No, no, no. That is not Rugby. Rugby, it's all about us. It's all about a family. It's more than Rugby. It's more than a team. It's a family. Everybody looks after one another. Nobody is a hero in Rugby. We help one another to try and make the next player get better than who's coaching. That is what Rugby is all about. That's why Rugby, I love Rugby because it has those core values in place. You remember that it's not all about you. It's all about the people next to you. It's all about the team. It's all about working together. It's all about helping one another. Most importantly, to try and help players to be better than you as a coach, as a top Rugby player. 

I remember when in the USA, my business partner told me, 'Hey, my daughter is not enjoying lacrosse and soccer. You need to take her to the Rugby training.' She was 16 years old and I said, OK. I picked her up from the house and I told her, ‘Hey, we have to go training tomorrow, 3 pm.’ What? Rugby. Then I picked her. The first time in the car, she was like this at the back. 16-year-old girl. She was so upset. Second, third, the fourth time, as soon as she came in the car, she went like wow. Then I said, ‘Emily, what happened?’ I was driving in the reverse mirror. What happened? And then she said, 'Oh, the soccer players, these are so mean. The lacrosse, they're so mean. They don't help me and they have this small group and this and this. But the Rugby players, they help me. They come and talk to me. They welcome me and I'm so happy. In four days, I have a lot of friends,' And I told her, ‘Emily, in Rugby, nobody is a hero. Everybody helps one another,’ That's the thing I love about Rugby. That's why I love Rugby. People help one another with the little things they have.

8. If you hadn't pursued Rugby, then which sport you had the most interest on?

I play soccer. I started from soccer from my area. I played soccer and I thought I was good at soccer. I played right wing in soccer. And I scored some tries in club Rugby. Then after that, I stopped because it was played on Sunday. My family said, no, you're not playing Sunday. It's a big thing in Fiji. Nobody's training and working and playing on Sunday. So, I stopped. I took a turn to Rugby. Yeah. And the worst thing, I was caught because I had to go to Sunday school, you know, to church. One Sunday, I had my socks on. Then I went, I missed the church and I went to the soccer field. I was playing. The worst thing is I was on the newspaper the other day. And I got a beating from home. That's why I stopped.