FOR the past few seasons Ardrossan Accies have recruited overseas players into the club, these have been mainly from established rugby playing countries including New Zealand, Australia and Samoa.

More recently players from Serbia and Greece have joined and are currently part of the main playing squad.

The two latest arrivals at the Memorial Field in the last fortnight, are from the rapidly developing rugby nation of India and are here as a result of the Accies head coach Rory Couper being there during the summer.

He was participating in the HSBC Penguins Coaching Academy to work along with the Indian Rugby Union, introducing and developing rugby in some of its playing regions.

On his travels he watched the Senior National Rugby 7's Championships in Patna, Lohir Nag.

The winning team was Delhi and team was from Delhi and both new recruits, 28-year=old Vikas Khatri and 26-year old Nitin"Sam" Dagar, were standout performers in the tournament.

Both players are from the two principal clubs in the Indian Capital , The Hurricanes and The Rebels respectively and have also represented Haryna State at National level.

Vikas also worked for the Indian Rugby Union as a Regional Development Officer .

Rory suggested if he ever wanted to travel and experience rugby in Scotland then the Accies would be more than welcome to see him at Ardrossan.

He also spoke with the General Manager of Indian Rugby and former National Team Captain Nasser Hussain, who thought this would be an excellent opportunity for players (and coaches) to experience rugby in different countries and help develop local Indian players.

When Rory arrived back in Scotland, Vikas exchanged some correspondence and indicted that he would like to come the Accies and experience Scottish National League rugby.

Indian National Rugby Union team captain Nasser Hussain suggested that a second player could potentially join Vikas on this trip and that's where Nitin came into the picture."

Rory Couper said "From a coaching front I never thought I would be going to India to find players but only to offer my services as a coach with the HSBC Penguins. However, I could see the benefit of adding two players to our squad and could see them fitting into to the style of rugby Ardrossan produce and thought it was a great opportunity."

He also believes that they will be provided with coaching experience , develop as players and be able to take those skills back home to help further Indian rugby of the future.

The Accies coach is hopeful that their time at Ardrossan will be a positive experience and hopefully establish a future link with Indian Rugby which will benefit young players from both India and Ardrossan.

When asked for their impressions on Ardrossan, both players said: " The people are really friendly, the standard of rugby is excellent ,the atmosphere in the Accies clubhouse is great but it is cold."