Khelo Rugby wins 2019 Rhino Grassroots Rugby Award

Khelo Rugby, the grassroots and charitable rugby program in India, has won the 2019 Rhino Grassroots Rugby Award it was announced this week.

2019 Rhino Grassroots Award

Photo Credit: Rhino- Main picture: Paul Walsh, together with Shuraj Sharma, receives Rhino Trophy from Reg Clark at iconic rugby pub, The Sun Inn in Richmond.

Four rugby programs were shortlisted in 2019, Khelo Rugby, Friends of Rwandan Rugby, Visually Impaired Rugby by The Change Foundation, and Grass Roots Rugby Japan 2019. We announced the shortlisting of Khelo Rugby in November,

The other Asian nominee, Grass Roots Rugby Japan 2019, was also mentioned as a specially commendation “for their role in providing visitors to RWC 2019 with opportunities to meet local fans and players in social tournaments and events.”

Khelo Rugby

Khelo is the 3rd Asian recipient of the Rhino Award in the past 5 years and Khelo and Jungle Crows founder, Paul Walsh, said “Fantastic to be recognised by Rhino for our Khelo Rugby project. We’ve thousands of children playing each week and it’s great fun to be a part of it. The motivation is seeing those rugby smiles. Although Khelo has rugby as its catalyst and is what we’re passionate about, our effort goes double into developing opportunities for our young players. Growing up with rugby!”

Earlier this year we spoke to length to Paul in an interview and one of the biggest challenges for the organisation was funding.

“Probably like most clubs and organisations, a recurring challenge is funding – this is what I seem to spend most of my time on these days. The easiest part is sharing the game, just get a rugby ball out and children will fall over themselves to play.”

Rhino CEO, Reg Clark said of the award on the Rhino website “Khelo Rugby is an inspirational organisation that has made a huge difference to rugby an India, setting an example to other developing nations about how to grow the game in a way that has a real impact on society.”

Rhino Grassroots Rugby Award Winners

• 2015 TAG RUGBY TRUST (UK)
• 2016 KAMPUCHEA BALOPP (Cambodia)
• 2017 SKRUM (Swaziland)
• 2018 SHIBUYA INTERNATIONAL RUGBY CLUB (Japan)
• 2019 KHELO RUGBY (India)

Read about rugby development in Asia

• Vietnam to have a rugby federation before 2021.
• Global Rapid Rugby 2020 will include two Asian based teams.
• CA Brive appoint a first rugby ambassador to Asia.
• The ChildFund Pass It Back program and its roots in Asia.
• The new Asia Rugby EXCO challenges in growing the game.