Mumbai, June 13 (IANS) Kiwi legend Scott Curry and Spanish captain Pol Pla Vegue have been named co-captains for the Bengaluru Bravehearts in the upcoming Rugby Premier League starting on June 15 at the Andheri Sports Complex, Mumbai.

The Rugby Premier League is the world’s first franchise-based international league where stalwarts of international rugby will play alongside the best talent homegrown in India.

“We are extremely excited for the upcoming Rugby Premier League and to captain the Bengaluru Bravehearts in the inaugural season is a responsibility that we are really looking forward to. Our squad consists of some of the biggest names from both international rugby and from a pool of fantastic Indian players and we cannot wait to get our campaign started,” said both Curry and Vegue on being appointed co-captains of the Bengaluru Bravehearts.

Curry and Vegue will each bring their own experience to the franchise, each having captained the best sides in the world with the hope of leading Bengaluru Bravehearts into a successful inaugural season at the Rugby Premier League. Curry has established himself as one of the best open field runners in the rugby sevens game has also captained the iconic New Zealand side, widely known as the All Blacks Seven. He led the team to an Olympic silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the first-ever medal for New Zealand in rugby 7s at the Olympics.

Vegue, captain of Spain’s Rugby 7s team and the Spanish player with the most number of tries in the world rugby seven series in history, has led Spain to several accolades.

“Ranjan, Bhupinder and I are amazed at the camaraderie that has been created between international legends from New Zealand, Fiji, Spain, Uganda, Hong Kong, Canada, and legends from the Indian Rugby, led by the most celebrated and accomplished coach Paco Hernandez supported by the best Indian coach. Different languages, different accents, different cultures but bound by a smile, bound by their love for rugby and their desire for the Bravehearts to lift the first edition cup for Bengaluru with their enthusiastic cheer NAMDU (which means ITS OURS in Kannada). Thanks to GMR and Indian Rugby Football Union for coming together and giving huge hope to lakhs of youth playing this sport in the future in India,” said Bengaluru Bravehearts co-owner Sanjith Shetty.

Bengaluru Bravehearts boasts of names like Tone Ng Shiu, Mohit Khatri, Iowane Teba, Liam Poulton, Arpan Chettri amongst others in their final squad. The complete squad is Scott Curry, Pol Pla Vegue, Tone Ng Shiu, Suresh Kumar, Iowane Teba, Mak Chung, Akila Rokolisoa, Liam Poulton, Mohit Khatri, Arpan Chettri, Karan Rajbhar, and Prashant Singh. The team is coached by the legendary, Francisco ‘Paco’ Hernandez.

The Bengaluru Bravehearts begin their campaign against Delhi Redz in the first match of the league on June 15.

–IANS

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