Swine flu fear causes team to cancel England tour

Swine flu. Yesterday's news, you may think, and perhaps not the terrible plague the newspapers first made said it would be.

But its clearly still worrying some people - especially overseas where the UK in particular would seem to be seen as the home of a new Black Death - because concerns about swine flu have meant that India's top girls' rugby team KISS (Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences - but universally known as KISS, apparently) have cancelled their forthcoming tour of England. Which part of this plague-ridden country they were planning to visit isn't revealed, but for the time being the girls from India's Orissa province (the north-east corner of the country) are staying safely at home.

Which is a pity as this was almost certainly to be the first tour of England by an Indian girls' or women's team. Girls' and women's rugby is a relatively new sport in India, but a growing one - the appearance of seven's rugby in next year's Commonwealth Games in Delhi (even though this will be a men-only tournament) is having an effect. Rugby is unlikely to ever become a major sport in India, but with a population of over a billion even a as "minor" sport the country has the potential to be a major force in the game. The Indian women's team played in their first international sevens tournament in May and are likely to make their debut at XVs within the next year.