Gatsby rugby tournament to kick-off Nov 20

CHENNAI - The inaugural Gatsby Callaghan Cup Rugby tournament will be held here from Nov 20 to 27, featuring India’s top 12 teams.

Ruggers from Kerala, Chennai, Kolkata, Orissa, Bangalore, Pune and Mumbai besides others who go by names such as Maidan Hazards, Pune RFC, Chennai Irish, Bangalore Bombers, Sergeants Institute, Chennai Cubs, GBP, KISS and YRC, will battle it out for the honours.

The tournament aims to promote the top two teams to Division I in the All India tournament the following year. The tournament is based on a knockout format with first round losers going into a plate competition and the winners continuing on in the Cup competition.

The Callaghan Cup is named after R.W. Leybourne Callaghan, a former honorary consul of Ireland in India. He was a very prominent player of rugby and helped set up the Bombay Gymkhana Club. He founded this cup and the tournament is named in his honour.

“With the gaining popularity of rugby in India, the Gatsby Group which believes in and is known to promote sports internationally is more than happy to be associated with the South Indian Rugby Federation in sponsoring this tournament,” Omar Sait, the new head of Gatsby Group, said at a Media briefing here Thursday.

Gerald Prabhu, President of the South India Rugby Football Association, said: “We are very pleased to host the first edition of the Gatsby Callaghan Cup. Events like these go a long way to promote the sport in a region and we hope that this tournament will do the same.”