Rugby India, the national governing body for the sport in India, has announced the launch of Rugby Premier League (RPL), in partnership with GMR Sports. 

The tournament will take place in Mumbai from 1-15 June and will be broadcast live on Star Sports and JioHotstar.  

Rahul Bose, president, Rugby India, said, “This is a league that’s been six years in the making, but we wanted to do everything right. The first extraordinary development came thanks to World Rugby, who gave us a 15-day window in which no international rugby 7s would be played anywhere. This made the best global rugby players available to us. From there to partnering with GMR sports and creating the best conditions for both the international players as well as our Indian players, choosing some of the most intelligent, committed team owners and getting a top-class broadcast partner in JioStar, it’s been one hell of a ride.”

The league will feature 30 marquee international players from Argentina, South Africa, Kenya, Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, Spain, Fiji, USA and Ireland, 18 players from Canada, Hong Kong, and Germany and 30 Indian players. 

“When you decide on something ambitious like this, the first thing you should do is to look at the mistakes of others and the good things that others have done. That’s what we did, and we started by looking at all the other leagues. It's very easy to have a league that is razzmatazz and glamorous and that raises a lot of public attention. But that's not what we want to do. We wanted to have a league and now we have six team owners and members here from six regions,” Bose added. 

The six franchises are Bengaluru Bravehearts, Chennai Bulls, Delhi Redz, Hyderabad Heroes, Kalinga Black Tigers, and the Mumbai Dreamers. 

Bose noted, “How many people know rugby in this country? Hardly any, compared to the population. The league is going to change the ecosystem in a way that will hasten the speed at which we move. But all of this is predicated on one thing, which is, do you have a world-class league or not? Many leagues exist or used to exist in this country that were not and are not world-class and therefore are struggling. Many leagues have failed because, in general, there's a feeling that teams create loyalty and not individuals. This day is historic as it is the first day at the beginning of the final stage of the silver bullet that will inevitably happen in our history.” 

Catch our full conversation with Bose in the May issue of Manifest.