The Rugby League's USP Is Its Brevity

While many sports leagues have stuttered, rugby league's organisers believe there's some business sense to it

- Arun Janardhan

It's four minutes per quarter. There are tackles, running, muscle, shouting, grunting; people fall, blood is oozing out—kabaddi will not see that. Kabaddi only has some holding.

Srinath Chittoori's description of rugby 7s is not a criticism of kabaddi, but as a reference marker of what he wants audiences to expect. The co-owner of KLO Sports has just bought a team, Hyderabad Heroes, in the GMR Rugby Premier League (RPL), the latest in the assembly line of sports leagues that sprout periodically—and optimistically—in the country.

On Sunday, at Mumbai's Andheri Sports Complex, on the opening evening of the league that ends on 29 June, a few hundred people gathered under a cloudy sky to watch the first three matches of the RPL. Some in the audience, first-time viewers of rugby, squealed and shuddered at the sheer physicality of the tackles, the speed of the runs and the muscle that Srinath mentions.

Three matches wrapped up in under two hours, despite the intermittent drizzle, which only adds more chutzpah to the players' slides. The results of the matches matter less than what has transpired—and will over the next two weeks—which is India showcasing and playing a sport that many believe we don't.

The shorter format of the sport—like T20 cricket—each team in rugby 7s has seven players. A match is 14 minutes long—or 22 minutes, including breaks. Its brevity, the RPL's organisers believe, is its superpower.

"There are two rules to this," says team Delhi Redz's coach Tomasi Cama Junior, a Fijian who in 2024 became the head coach for the New Zealand's All Blacks Sevens. "Rule 1, move. Rule 2, refer to rule 1."