Rough Em' Up 2012

40m

What do you call a bunch of girls tackling, mauling, running and kicking on a 100 yard pitch, fighting for a ball? You call that playing rugby – a sport that gifts you more broken bones and torn ligaments than any other. From Kashmir to Kerala, Manipur to Mumbai, state teams are battling it out to win the Women’s Rugby Nationals each year. How did an elitist sport end up making inroads into small towns so quickly?