The City With 161 Rugby Clubs — and Nowhere to Buy a Ball | DotDarbs | Rugby TTL

Carl catches up with Max Derbyshire, better known as DotDarbs on Instagram, on a laptop in a borrowed bedroom in Yerevan. Darbs has hitchhiked down from Georgia, where he was filming the opening weekend of the Didi 10, to spend a few days with the Armenian rugby community and the Iran national team. It started with a phone that never arrived. Darbs had planned to cycle France and vlog it. The phone got nicked in the post, he found a cheap flight to Madagascar leaving two days later, and he went. What he found there is the heart of this episode: Antananarivo reportedly has more rugby clubs than any city on Earth. He followed the game from the top division down to the fifth and sixth tiers: dust pitches, sticks for posts, players with and without boots. Kids play in the streets with balls made from cut-down water bottles. And yet, in the city with the most rugby clubs anywhere, you can't buy a rugby ball in a shop. Before Madagascar there was India. Darbs coached in Kolkata after university, including the West Bengal women's sevens and a train journey of more than a day to the nationals. He tells the story of Sumit Roy, who used to walk eight kilometres to training and is now one of the stars of the Indian Rugby Premier League. Plus: Why Malagasy and Indian players both describe themselves as "small but quick". Where rugby in Madagascar came from. Why Darbs found coaching harder than playing. What's next: Jordan Sevens, more of the Middle East, and cycling the length of Madagascar to raise money for rugby balls. His bucket list: China, Papua New Guinea, Kazakhstan, Chile, and one day Iran and Iraq. Real stories from the leagues the mainstream skips. 📸 Follow Darbs: instagram.com/dotdarbs ⏱️ Chapters: 00:00 Hitchhiking Through Armenia 01:00 Filming the Didi 10 in Georgia 02:00 Armenia v Iran — and the Party After 03:00 From University to Coaching in India 04:00 Kolkata, the Northeast and Curt's Code 05:00 The Phone That Never Arrived — and a Flight to Madagascar 06:00 Following Six Divisions of Malagasy Rugby 07:00 161 Clubs in One City 08:00 Kids Playing Rugby in the Streets 09:00 How Rugby Got to Madagascar 10:00 A Team for Every Neighbourhood 11:00 Flares, Pom-Poms and Heckling on Final Day 12:00 India — and Kiano Fourie 13:00 More Than a Day on a Train to the Nationals 14:00 A Tiny Sport, in Pockets 15:00 "We're Small, but We're Quick" 17:00 Madagascar in the Africa Sevens Final 18:00 Sticks for Posts, No Boots, No Kit 19:00 Water-Bottle Balls and Worried Parents 20:00 Jordan Sevens, Kazakhstan and the Middle East 21:00 The Most Clubs on Earth — and You Can't Buy a Ball 22:00 Bury St Edmunds at Four Years Old 23:00 Sumit Roy — From Walking 8km to the Rugby Premier League 24:00 Coaching or Playing? 25:00 Why He's Taking a Year Out 26:00 Carl on Coaching Kids Through the Highs and Lows 28:00 Funding a Club Through DotDarbs 29:00 The People Who Made It 30:00 The Bucket List — China, PNG, Kazakhstan, Chile 31:00 Iran, Iraq and Rugby's Geopolitics 32:00 Come Back on a Monday Night 33:00 Recording From a Bedroom in Yerevan 🏉 RUGBY TTL 📺 Subscribe: youtube.com/@RugbyTTL 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/511e8frgzJnY1CWe06GLyH 📸 Instagram: instagram.com/rugbyttl 🌍 rugbyttl.com · rugbyttl.app 📲 WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbD1y21It5rxCjSNwJ3y 🏉 Join free → rugbyttl.com/members #MadagascarRugby #DotDarbs #RugbyTTL