Rugby Premier League: Six teams locked and loaded after inaugural draft event

The curtains have been drawn on the inaugural edition of the Rugby Premier League in India as six franchises came together for the Player Draft and Auction in Mumbai The Rugby Premier League is the first ever franchisebased league in the world and will have six founding franchises in the opening editionThe franchises Bengaluru Bravehearts Chennai Bulls Delhi Redz Hyderabad Heroes Kalinga Black Tigers and the Mumbai Dreamers went through the Player Draft and Auction which saw a few intense bidding wars as they went onto pick their squad of 13Each team had 8 slots to fill from the draft and another 5 in the auction with the pool in the latter comprising Indian players only The RPL which will be a Rugby Sevens format tournament commences on June 1 with a grand final on the 15th at the Andheri Sports Complex in Mumbai Across the 34 matches the RPL offers Indian players with a great platform to rub shoulders and work alongside the most elite rugby players and coaches from across the worldThe RPL will welcome 30 marquee international players from powerhouse Rugby 7s nations including New Zealand Australia South Africa Fiji Argentina Great Britain Ireland USA and Spain Additionally 18 international players from Canada Hong Kong and Germany will feature enhancing the leaguersquos competitive depth The league will also feature 30 Indian players selected from an auction pool of 71 providing them with a historic platform to compete alongside international legendsRugby Premier League Squads after player draft and auctionThe Bengaluru Bravehearts picked Henry Kirwan Liam Poulton Mak Chung Akuila Rokolisoa Iowane Teba Tone Shiu Pol Pla and Scott Curry in the draft round During the auction they acquired Mohit Khatri INR 475 Lakhs Karan Rajbhar INR 80000 Arpan Chhetri INR 60000 Suresh Kumar INR 50000 and Prashant Singh INR 50000Chennai Bulls went for Hannes Adler Haakon Oeszlig Nikias Lohe Terry Kennedy Joseva Talacolo Ratu Sauturaga Joaquin Pellandini and Alexander Davis in the draft At the auction they cherry picked the likes of Vallabh Patil INR 1 Lakh Shanawaz Ahmed INR 80000 Vinayak Hariraj INR 50000 Muhammed Jasim EP INR 50000 and Vinay A INR 50000Delhi Redz drafted in Thomas Richards Michael Coverdale Moritz Noll Osadczuk Lucas Matteo Graziano Alejandro Castro Patrick Odongo and Jordan Conroy in the first round After that the team signed on the services of Rajdeep Saha INR 275 Lakhs Deepak Punia INR 250 Lakhs Mohit INR 50000 Sunil Chawan INR 50000 and Raj Kumar INR 50000Hyderabad Heroes handpicked James Christie Max Roddick Fong Fung Luciano Rizzoni Joji Nasova Manuel Asensi Terio Veilawa and Regan Ware at the draft And later on went shopping for Prince Khatri INR 375 Lakh Sumit Roy INR 125 Lakh Javed Hussein INR 90000 Sukumar Hembrom INR 60000 and Sambit Pradhan INR 50000The Kalinga Black Tigers wasted no time in the giving the nod for Kyle Tremblay Ethan Turner James Thiel Rosko Specman Lucas Lacamp Perry Baker Harry Mcnulty and Maurice Longbottom in the draft Once at the auction they prised out the services of Ajay Deswal INR 275 Lakh Asis Sabar INR 150 Lakh Pappu Todkar INR 60000 Pardeep Singh INR 50000 and Arjun Mahato INR 50000The Mumbai Dreamers bagged Elias Hancock Rhys James Briar Barron James Turner Waisea Nacuqu Henry Hutchison Aaron Cummings and Santiago Mare in the draft Joining them in the squad from the auction round were Neeraj INR 275 Lakh Devendra Padir INR 125 Lakh Akash Balmiki INR 90000 Nayan K INR 50000 and Ganesh Majhi INR 50000atOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params