Ranked No 68 in the world, Indian women have steadily been growing in confidence after a few international exposure trips, but at home things could be different, feels team captain Surabhi Date.
"Crowd support makes a lot of difference and having done extensive practice over last few weeks, I would expect a much better show from the team," said Surabhi on the eve of the continental championship that has been designated as 2013 World Cup qualifier.
Sixteen teams, including defending champions China and runners-up Kazakhstan, are taking part.
Besides, Hong Kong, Philippines, Chinese Taipei, Japan, UAE, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea, Fiji, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Iran, and hosts India are in the fray.
In all 21 league matches will be played with top two teams from four pools making it to the quarterfinals.
The 12-member Indian team has seven players from Pune, including the captain. Saloni Prachande, Vahbiz Bharucha, Ketaki Khare, Neha Pardeshi, Shruti Marathe and Annapurna Bathate are the other players from the host city.
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"This is for the first time that 15 teams will be competing in the Asian Championships, up from 12 last year," informed Jarrad Gallagher, Regional General Manager of International Rugby Board (IRB).
IRB's Ross Mitchell said India had all the talent but lacks in infrastructure.
"We are hoping that at least government funds will now come to the sport after Rugby 7s got included in the Olympic Games programme from 2016 Olympics onwards," he said.
Top two finishers after the league matches will be playing for Cup/Plate competition, while the bottom two will compete in Bowl/Shield event.