LONG READ ‘The RPL is a massive opportunity for rugby in India, Asia and the global game at large’

A new chapter in rugby history is being written this weekend in Mumbai, India, with the start of the Rugby Premier League (RPL) on Saturday, 15 June.

The RPL will be the first-ever franchise league in rugby union, aiming to do for Rugby Sevens what the IPL – India’s iconic cricket franchise league – has done for Twenty20 cricket.

That is, to deliver an event which draws in both Indian sports fans and the global rugby community through a new format where Sevens takes place every night of the week for two weeks straight.

Rugby Sevens’ Indian soap-opera era is about to begin. And here’s what you need to know.

What is the RPL and how is it different to the HSBC SVNS?

The RPL is a two-week long Sevens tournament taking place in one venue, the Mumbai Football Arena, featuring six new franchise teams from across India. Between 15 June and 29 June, two Sevens matches will be played every evening in Mumbai from Monday to Thursday, followed by three matches per evening at the weekends (Friday to Sunday).

This format is a stretched-out version of a leg on the HSBC SVNS circuit where a whole tournament is contested over two days. The RPL follows a ‘soap opera’ format designed to encourage fans and television viewers to tune in at the same time each evening to see the next instalment of the competition.

The competing franchises come from Delhi, Hyderabad, Kalinga, Chennai, Bengaluru and of course, the host city of Mumbai. Each franchise squad numbers 13 players made up of five-star players from the HSBC SVNS circuit, five of the very best Indian Sevens players, as well as three ‘bridge’ players from Canada, Hong Kong or Germany.

All six franchises will play 10 pool matches, with the top four teams then contesting the semi-finals and a final between the last two teams standing. Matches will also be split into four quarters of four minutes each, rather than two halves of seven minutes, meaning matches will last for 16 minutes, rather than 14.

Who are the star players and which franchises do they play for?

In all, 30 of the world’s best Sevens players will be playing in the inaugural edition of the RPL, with six of the best coaches involved too. And when we say the world’s best, we really mean it.

Perry Baker is perhaps the most recognisable name in the whole competition and will be playing for the Kalinga Black Tigers from the East Indian state of Odisha. The former two-time World Sevens Player of the Year, and scorer of perhaps the best Sevens try ever in Las Vegas in 2018, will be playing alongside Australian wizard Maurice Longbottom and the man they call ‘SpecMagic’ Rosko Specman from South Africa.

It’s fair to say the Kalinga Black Tigers will not be short of speed (Baker and Specman) nor playmaking ability (Longbottom and Lucas Lacamp of the USA), while they also have a heroic workhorse in Ireland’s Harry McNulty.

Kenya’s captain Kevin Wekesa will be heading up the campaign of the Hyderabad Heroes. Wekesa is an all-action forward, or back, who can knock over anyone in the world game yet is fast enough to round most of them as well. Away from rugby he plants trees in depleted forests in his native Kenya but in Mumbai, expect him to be pulling up trees in every match.

He’ll be supported by this year’s top try-scorer in HSBC SVNS – Joji Nasova of Fiji. The experienced New Zealander Regan Ware will also be on hand to steer the Heroes around the pitch – but perhaps the most influential cog in the Heroes’ campaign will be their coach DJ Forbes, one of the most decorated players to ever play Sevens and someone who will drive the highest standards from his star players.

The Hyderabad Heroes also have the strongest set of bridge players of any franchise with Max Roddick of Germany, James Christie and Fong Kit Fung (both from Hong Kong) all with plenty of Challenger Series experience to their names.

Jerry Tuwai is the most decorated Sevens player of his generation with two Olympic gold medals to his name from Fiji’s wins in 2016 and 2021 (plus a silver from Paris 2024). Although now 36, he’ll be the key playmaker for the Mumbai Dreamers.

His legs may not be what they were but there’s plenty of speed outside him in Australian duo Henry Hutchison and James Turner. Both players won the HSBC SVNS series with Australia in 2022 and both can shift, very fast.

The Australian connection continues at the Dreamers with Tim Walsh guiding their campaign from the sidelines. Fijian Waisea Nacuqu is another man on the Dreamers’ roster who will need to be watched very closely by rival teams.

The franchise that possesses the most dangerous running threats in the competition is the Delhi Redz, who have both Ireland’s Jordan Conroy and Kenya’s Patrick Odongo Okong’o on their roster.

Odongo Okong’o is a former track sprinter in Kenya whose personal best over 100m is under 10 seconds (9.99), meaning he is the fastest man to have ever played elite rugby full stop. Even the legendary American Carlin Isles never dipped below the 10-second barrier in his track career.  Conroy meanwhile is a finisher extraordinaire who rarely gets beaten in a foot race on a rugby field.

Supporting them are two members of Argentina’s Los Pumas Sevens side that have won back-to-back HSBC SVNS titles in Matias Osadczuk and Matteo Graziano. The Delhi Redz’s Spanish connection continues with Alejandro Laforga, a member of the Spanish Sevens team which recorded their best-ever season in HSBC SVNS this year, finishing third.

One of the most famous players to have ever played Sevens is at the coaching helm of the Chennai Bulls: Ben Gollings. The Englishman is still the all-time top points-scorer over the 26 seasons of HSBC SVNS.

Gollings’ on-field general will be Irishman Terry Kennedy, the World Sevens Player of the Year in 2022, an achievement which even eluded Gollings. Meanwhile English hard-man AJ Davis is also in the side and will act as a great foil for Kennedy’s attacking talents.

Balancing the structured instincts of this British and Irish axis are Fijians Filipe Sauturaga and Joseva Talacolo, along with Argentine Jaoquin Pellandini. The Chennai Bulls may be a team of contrasting talents, but the blend should work well.

There is a strong New Zealand element to the Bengaluru Bravehearts from the Karnataka state in the south-west of the country, with no less than three All Blacks Sevens players on the roster: Tone Ng Shiu, Scott Curry and the impossibly creative Akuila Rokolisoa.

Rokolisoa is the type of player who can beat an entire team by himself. He has the stepping ability of a scrum-half, the flat-line speed of a winger and the hands of a rugby genius. His whole package is devastatingly good.

Spanish speedster Pol Pla will fit in well amongst the Kiwi contingent, as will Fijian Iowane Teba. With a Kiwi core, the Bravehearts will first and foremost will be very hard to beat, and in Rokolisoa they have a consistent match-winner in their ranks.

Who are the Indian players to look out for?

Mohit Khatri was the most expensive Indian player in the RPL draft which took place in April, with the Bengaluru Braves paying 475,000 Indian Rupees (about £4,100) for his services.

His brother Prince Khatri was the second most expensive player, being bought for 375,000 Indian Rupees by the Hyderabad Heroes. And the third most expensive player? That’ll be another Khatri, Neeraj Khatri, who the Mumbai Dreamers paid 275,000 Indian Rupees for. So the name Khatri is certainly one to watch out for.

One of the central aims of the RPL is to boost the development of rugby in India, starting with exposing the 30 Indian players in the RPL to the world’s very best Sevens players.

In their time, the Kahtri brothers have played club rugby in South Africa and now play domestically in India – Mohit and Prince for Haryana Rugby in the centre-north of the country, and Neeraj for the Delhi Hurricanes in the capital.

The same price spent on Neeraj Khatri was also spent on Ajay Deswal of the Kalinga Black Tigers and Rajdeep Saha of the Delhi Redz. Deepak Punia, also of the Delhi Redz, rounds out the top six most expensive Indian players in the RPL, having been bought for 250,000 Indian Rupees.

One of the central aims of the RPL is to boost the development of rugby in India, starting with exposing the 30 Indian players in the RPL to the world’s very best Sevens players. We will know much more about Indian Sevens players by the end of the RPL than we do now.

What will the RPL do for rugby in India?

An awful lot. Not only will the 30 current national team players involved benefit from playing with, and against, the best Sevens players in the world for two weeks this summer but after this debut RPL season, each franchise will be looking to develop better local players ahead of 2026, and beyond.

Developing better players means developing better coaches, physios and strength and conditioning trainers as well. In a few years, India will hopefully have six regional ecosystems run by the franchises where Indian rugby players can develop into elite players.

If rugby can start to gain a notoriety through the broadcasting of the RPL, then rugby could really start to make waves in the world’s most populous country

Although India is not a successful rugby nation at international level, the sport has already taken root more deeply than many realise. Rugby is played at a grass-roots level in 322 of India’s 760 districts, according to Rugby India.

Rugby India also know that only a tiny fraction of the 2 million people in each district will actually play rugby, but the fact rugby has a presence already means that the franchises will be looking to develop players from communities that are aware of the sport.

If rugby can start to gain a notoriety through the broadcasting of the RPL, then rugby could really start to make waves in the world’s most populous country, which totals more than 1.4 billion people. The RPL is a massive opportunity for rugby in India, Asia and for the global game at large.

OK, I love it, how can I watch the RPL?

If you are based in India, or certain Asian countries, you can watch all the action on the JioHotstar channel, which is part of Star Sports.

If you are outside of those territories, the RPL can be watched on RugbyPass TV.

The first day of action begins on the evening of Sunday 15 June, with matches being played every night until 29 June.