Asian Games 2026: With improved standards and growing reputation, Indian women’s rugby 7s team no more a lightweight

India qualified for the women’s rugby sevens event in Asian Games 2026 by virtue of finishing sixth in the Asia Rugby Sevens Series (ARSS) 2025, a result it matched in the first leg of the 2026 edition at the end of August.  | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

A lot can change in three years’ time.

When the India women’s rugby sevens team takes the field for its opening match of the Asian Games 2026, it will do so in a vastly different landscape to the last time it took the field in the continental competition.

India went to the Hangzhou 2022 edition in place of a Malaysia side that opted not to participate, and endured a tough campaign, losing all of its matches in a seventh place finish.

Come 2026, the outlook is significantly brighter. This time around, the Indian women’s side has qualified by virtue of finishing sixth in the Asia Rugby Sevens Series (ARSS) 2025, a result it matched in the first leg of the 2026 edition at the end of August.

“We were doubtful about whether or not we actually belonged there or not,” remembered Shikha Yadav, captain in 2026 and a veteran of the last outing. “This time we’ve achieved it ourselves, against the same teams and same faces, so it’s a big positive change for us.”

Not a full-time unit

The scale of the achievement of making this Asiad is underlined in the fact that this Indian women’s rugby team is still not a full-time unit.

“If you just look at fundamentally how the Asian Series is set up, the five teams ranked above us are full-time rugby programmes and the rest of us are not,” explains coach Paul Delport.

The lack of a full-time programme presents several challenges.

“We have several girls who have jobs and then manage themselves to stay fit for rugby. You can become weaker financially when you leave the camp after two months, because our salary is only for the two or three months of camp but you have to maintain your fitness for nine months,” explained Shikha.

“You can say that rugby is semi-professional right now, not fully professional, because we’re employed for three months in a year but after that we have to handle things for ourselves.”

One of the most experienced players in the system, Shikha did however, note that the state of infrastructure has improved significantly over the last few years thanks to concerted efforts from Rugby India.

“If you talk about the last six or seven years, then rugby has developed a lot. It’s growing at a good rate,” she said. “Before, we didn’t even get the money for the camp, we just played. There was no exposure tour, and we played just one tournament in a whole year.

There would be a month’s camp for that one tournament. For that, there was no diet, nutritionist, psychologist, physiotherapist, nothing.

But in the last four years, I think, a lot of things have improved since 2022, and they are moving forward. Earlier, our daily wages were Rs. 400-500. Now, it’s Rs.1000. Now, if the team can show results, we will get more sponsors to develop.”

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From a tactical perspective, India remains one of the smallest sides in the Asian series, but Delport focussed his energy on maximising the team’s strengths.

“We’re the smallest in stature, but move very well, very dynamically. The girls are very good on their feet. I thought that if we could bring in a couple of fundamental changes to how we play the game, if we could play forward into spaces. If we can develop a skillset to move teams around, we could be quite competitive.

Then we also changed our defensive system. I would say it was very lacklustre, so we just turned that into something a bit more abrasive, where we tried to dominate,” he explained.

The squad has also been bolstered by the experience of playing the inaugural women’s edition of the Rugby Premier League, a new franchise league that has brought some of the premier international players to Indian shores.

“We got a lot of exposure from RPL playing with some of the biggest players in the world. We were playing with Olympians, Commonwealth medalists, World Rugby Player of the Year winners, these kinds of players,” Shikha said.

“They understand how to enjoy the game, and have the attitude that no one is better than us. That’s something we learned from playing with these players, the ones who we used to watch on television.”

“We needed that exposure. Obviously we’re not a full-time programme, it’s not possible right now, but it gave us that exposure and experience at home, and we got paid for it as well. So it was a big tournament for us, and we learned a lot.”

Closing the gap

A good indication of both the miles the team has come and the miles to go came in the first leg of the ARSS 2026 that took place in China in August where India followed up its sixth-place finish from 2025 with another sixth-place finish in the first outing of the competition this year.

Contained within it were comprehensive defeats to Japan and Hong Kong China, as well as a closer defeat to Kazakhstan in the fifth place playoff. Those defeats provided valuable lessons about where the team can improve.

“We played the top four teams for the first time last year, and we were all excited to see what they do well that we don’t do. When we finally played them, we realised that they’re also human beings like us, who make mistakes,” Shikha explained.

“But we also got to know how quickly they recover from their mistakes. When we make mistakes we lose momentum but they overcome them very quickly, and stick to their basics and patterns. So I think we learned how important it is to stick to your patterns and system.”

Within that trip to China, the team also got a sense of its growing reputation after its impressive first year in the ARSS top division. “The difference between last year and this year is that everyone knew India had to be taken seriously,” she added.

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“Before teams saw us as slowly developing, as underdogs, but this year people knew they can’t take us lightly, because we can turn games around. I think we’ve developed a lot as a threat this year, last year no one saw us like that, koi itna bhav nahi de raha tha (no one took us that seriously).”

Delport, who has also had stints coaching the South Africa and Thailand women’s rugby sevens sides, feels that the reputation is deserved, saying, “To a large degree, I think we have closed the gap. I think it is plain to see that China and Japan are lightyears ahead of everyone else in Asia, but I think that as a programme, I think we have closed the gap to Hong Kong, Thailand, and Kazakhstan.

That’s the kind of space we’re operating in at the moment, and we’re making a real push to be more competitive.”

Asian Games and forward

Delport is also quick to caution against the idea that professionalisation will be a quick road to success.

“I think all the stakeholders in Rugby India have done incredibly well to build it to where it is,” he noted. “Everybody thinks if you get to a full-time programme, things will just be better, but it doesn’t work like that. For the first 18 months to two years of a full-time programme, you’re ironing out a lot of issues.

I think the space that we need to move into is, performance cycles work in four years. I’d say more in eight and 12 years. So, we need to have an eight-to-12 year plan, and within that, we need to have a micro plan, which is every year, and then, develop that macro plan.”

But the most immediate focus is the Asian Games, which both Shikha and Delport are viewing as less about chasing a medal and more about showcasing some of the team’s improvements.

“From the management’s side, the coach’s side, even the federation, there is no pressure to be focussed on the outcome. They just tell us to follow our processes. There’s no big pressure from the Asian Games,” Shikha said.

“As a team, we’ve improved so much but this will be another step up. ARSS is a very high level, the Asian Games is an even higher one,” said Delport. “I think we have enough continuity from 2023 with six or seven players, and I would just like our experience to be a lot different from that one.”

“Going in with clear processes defined and clear expectations that what we want is to execute our plan in the tournament. I believe that we’re a talented enough team that if we get our processes right, we will always put ourselves in a position to win, to cause a couple of upsets.”

His captain echoed his sentiments on what a successful Asiad campaign will look like, saying, “We’ve got to execute whatever we’ve been practicing, doing in training. We don’t focus on outcomes, our goal is to perform to the level of our strengths and talents.”

India women’s rugby sevens squad for the Asian Games 2026:

Shikha Yadav (C), Dumuni Marndi (VC), Amandeep Kaur, Arti Kumari, Bhumika Shukla, Vaishnavi Patil, Guriya Kumari, Kalyani Patil, Mama Naik, Nirmalya Rout, Sandhya Rai, Sandhyarani Tudu, Ujjwala Ghuge.

Published on Sep 30, 2026

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