Bengaluru, June 11: The Bengaluru Bravehearts are back, and the city has every reason to pay attention. Co-owned by Ranjan Pai (Chairman, Manipal Education and Medical Group) and Sanjith Shetty (Chairman, Soham Infrastructure and CEO and Founder of Miror), the Bengaluru Bravehearts today unveiled their squad for the HSBC Rugby Premier League Powered by Avid – to be played at Gachibowli Stadium, Hyderabad, from June 16 to 28, 2026. Six franchises will compete over thirteen days of rugby sevens, with the Bravehearts entering the tournament as one of the most credentialled squads ever assembled under an Indian franchise banner.
Rugby is no longer a sport the world plays while India watches. According to the largest market research study ever conducted by World Rugby, the sport has nearly 800 million followers globally, with India counted among the top emerging markets – recording 25.7 million fans and a fanbase growth of over 50 per cent since rugby’s inclusion at the Olympic Games. The launch of India’s HSBC Rugby Premier League Powered by Avid in 2025 – a franchise-based sevens league designed for modern broadcast audiences – laid the foundation for what 2026 is now expanding upon, with the introduction of a women’s competition running alongside the men’s competition for the first time. India is not catching up to rugby. Rugby is arriving in India – and Bengaluru has a front-row seat.
The Bravehearts’ Season 2 squad is the clearest proof of that arrival. Headlining is Akuila Rokolisoa, a 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens winner and 2022 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, who topped the 2022–23 World Rugby Sevens Series scoring charts with 415 points and has since entered the elite 100-try club. Alongside him: Shilton Van Wyk, Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medallist and Springbok Sevens Player of the Year; Henry Hutchison, three-time Olympian (Rio, Tokyo, Paris) and Australia’s most-capped men’s sevens player ever; Ngarohi McGarvey-Black, Paris 2024 silver medallist with over 150 international appearances; Ryan Apps, one of the most explosive wingers on the HSBC SVNS circuit; and Motu Opetai, the Samoan who scored the very first try of men’s rugby sevens at the Paris Games. Between them, this group has stood on Olympic podiums representing four different nations.
The Indian core of the squad carries its own weight. All Indian players in the Bravehearts squad have represented India at international level – whether in sevens or fifteens. Rajdeep Saha from West Bengal returns alongside Akash Balmiki, one of the handful of Indians to have played professional club rugby abroad. Their stories are not footnotes. They are the point.
The Bravehearts’ coaching staff brings genuine international credentials. Francisco (Paco) Hernandez (Spain), Head Coach, built Spain’s national sevens programme into a recognised force on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, known for his high-tempo, tactically precise coaching style. Terence Joseph serves as Assistant Coach, bringing deep technical expertise in sevens structures and player development. Completing the setup is Manuel Silero (Spain) as Strength and Conditioning Coach. Together, the three bring the tactical intelligence and physical preparation to match the squad they’ve assembled.
“Bengaluru doesn’t ask where you’re from,” said Sanjith Shetty, franchise co-owner and primary spokesperson. “It asks how you show up. This squad shows up.
Rugby sevens is the fastest-growing format in global sport – high-action, short, built for social media, and increasingly the gateway through which new fans discover the sport in markets like India, China and the USA. The Bravehearts are Bengaluru’s team in that story. Fourteen players. Five continents. One city.
Bengaluru, show up.
