LAHORE - Pakistan Rugby Union (PRU) earned 10th position in the World Rugby ‘Get into Rugby’ (GIR) programme while they were at number four in Asia Rugby GIR Programme.
In the Asian executive committee meeting, the World Rugby GIR ranking was discussed where Asia was on top in the world with 34 percent progress, while Rugby Europe 22 percent, South America Rugby 16 percent, Rugby Africa 19 percent, Rugby Americans North 5 percent and Oceania Rugby 4 percent. The total participation of Asia rugby in the world was 721,800.
It is worth mentioning here that Pakistan rugby has improved its participation in 2017 which was 70,366 in which 37,578 were boys and 32788 girls, who learnt rugby basic programme ‘Get into Rugby’. Colombia was on top in the world with 216,341 numbers while South Africa were second with 170,919, India third with 160,378, China fourth with 140,986, Japan fifth with 123,504, Russia sixth with 100,388, Kenya seventh with 93,728, Canada eighth with 93,653, Spain ninth with 85,234 and Pakistan tenth with 70,366.
In Asia, which has highly-populated countries including China and India, Pakistan earned fourth position from 31 Asian countries. India was first, China second, Japan third, Pakistan fourth, Hong Kong fifth, Malaysia sixth, Sri Lanka seventh, Philippines eighth, UAE ninth and Thailand 10th.
PRU chairman Fawzi Khawaja lauded efforts of his union towards promoting the game in Pakistan and Asian Region. “These numbers show the growth of rugby in Pakistan. These numbers are absolutely verified and correct because every GIR session is recorded and posted to Asia rugby and world rugby for all world countries. We have very good repute in Asia and World rugby. Our coaches and development officers have been working in South Punjab, Karachi, Peshawar, Islamabad, Fata and Baluchistan. The number of girls participating in this programme is very good, which was highly applauded by World and Asia Rugby.”
Fawazi also appreciated the efforts of head coach and GIR Program Pakistan head Shakeel Malik and his team. “We have many development coaches, who train new and young coaches. We have many women teams not only in South Punjab but also in Fata, Karachi and different regions. We believe that this is a very good step by World rugby to promote more GIR programme to all over the world.
“Asia Rugby is very keen to do this that’s why ‘Asia One Million Rugby programme’ is being run by Asia Rugby and we are part of it. We hope in 2018, we do better work and train more rugby players and coaches. We are first in Asian countries to complete our ‘GIR Target of 2017’,” he added.
OUR STAFF REPORTER