Bhubaneswar: Defending champion Odisha boys will face Tamil Nadu in their inaugural match of the Junior National Rugby 7's Championship at Uttarakhand on Saturday.
Altogether 27 teams from across the country divided in nine groups to play the league round matches. Odisha placed in the Pool-A alongside Assam and Tamil Nadu.
Talking about the preparation of the team the Odisha Rugby Football Association Secretary U K Mohanty said "Due to the heat wave condition we couldn't conduct the State Junior Inter-districts tournament. However, conducted the selection trial camp to finalise the teams. Recently our girls team bagged the runner-up in the ongoing junior national championship. Being the Defending champion, I am hopeful our Odisha boys will bring the champion trophy this year again".
Boys team: Bidyadhar Majhi, Charan Hembram, Rahul Majhi, Chinmay Kumar Naik, Suraj Kumar Dora, Eswar Pujhari, Mantu Tudu, Shiba Soren, Bharat Kisan, Attma Murmu, Subasha Hansda, Subhapati Naik, Dhiren Kumar Rout (coach), Muna Murmu (Manager), Arjun Singh (Physio).