Dubai 7’s 2009 – 40,000 spectators, loads of teams, at the fantastic Emirates ‘7he Sevens’ rugby facility. This was the 40th Dubai Rugby Sevens and it saw the Fujairah Team appear for 6th year running.

The Team donned their brand spanking new kit (courtesy of Sponsors FRCL and FSRS), sucked in their guts (smaller courtesy of our Training Facility Sponsor Fujairah Tennis and Country Club), pumped up their well toned muscles and went for it.
Game 1 was against the Toa Dubai 2, a formidable Samoan team that are trained by Samoan International and London Wasps Star Trevor Leota, from the Dubai Sports City Rugby Academy. The Fujairah guys looked fantastic, and were both physically and mentally prepared by Stephen Deady (Coach) and Dave Gruar (Kick Boxing Instructor extraordinaire). Support was also provided by Team Manager Rob Kent and Team Medic Carolynne Kent.
Blood, sweat and tears – most of which came from the Fujairah Side as the South Pacific Islanders gave us a fair lesson in 7’s.
Not to be disheartened – our next opponents were to be Al Khobar, however they were, it seems very confused about timing (absolutely nothing to do with the fact that all they were in Dubai for was to escape from Saudi Arabia and to sample the UAE Hospitality Industry). Suffice to say they had a little too much hospitality the night before or they had possibly heard of the Formidable Fujairah Bulls – so they stayed away and we were awarded a win.
The last match of the first day was against Muscat, a challenge, but not one that the Fujairah team was not up to. A hard fought match with both sides vying for promotion – Fujairah went through to the senior competition due to our high points record.
Day 2 – The Semi Finals of the Gulf Men’s Shield Competition and the best result Fujairah has had since 2003. Nerves twitched, legs oiled and shoulders eased as the aches and pains of the previous day were worked out of some of the shattered bodies, while some were so fatigued they were stuck to their mattresses (Dan!). Toa Dubai 1 were our opponents and the result was inevitable. They went on to win the competition and we did not.
Many thanks must go to all those who came to support the team and our generous sponsors.
Training in the form of touch rugby will re-commence on Sunday evenings from 1730-1900 at the Tennis Club - All are most welcome.
Our next competition is the Sharjah 10’s competition in February 2010. Anyone wishing to play, coach, support or sponsor the team’s new uniform is most welcome to contact me on 050-6548239 (Paul Algate).

So another year of sporting highs and lows has come and gone, chances were taken and lost, some played, some misbehaved
but we can look forward to 2010 knowing it will produce a lot
more questions than answers.

February: What can you say about a game in which the longest play in Super Bowl history - a 100-yard interception return for a touchdown by Pittsburgh linebacker James Harrison - was almost rendered a mere footnote? A contest that virtually eclipsed the highly anticipated glory-days halftime set of Bruce Springsteen?
For more than three quarters, Super Bowl XLIII was idling along toward yet another Pittsburgh Steelers victory when all hell broke loose. Just when it looked like the Arizona Cardinals had authored the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history -- scoring 16 unanswered points in the fourth quarter -- the Steelers answered with Ben Roethlisberger's 6-yard touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes with 35 seconds left gave Pittsburgh a soaring 27-23 victory over the Cardinals at Raymond James Stadium.
March: At least six players in the Sri Lankan National Cricket Team were hurt by shrapnel when masked gunmen fired on the team bus in Lahore while being driven to the Gaddafi stadium. The teams were in Pakistan because India had pulled out of its Test series following the Mumbai terror attacks. No international sides have visited the troubled country since the terrorist attack which has also resulted in the ICC stripping Pakistan of co-hosting the 2011 World Cup.
April: In Rugby Harlequins winger, Tom Williams fabricated a cut to the mouth in order to allow substituted fly half Nick Evans to return to the field with five minutes remaining in the Heineken Cup quarterfinal against Leinster. Television cameras spotted Williams winking towards the bench with 'blood' smeared around his mouth. Later in the year, a disgraced Williams, was suspended for 12 months after being found guilty of his role and the club was also fined Dhs.1.26 million by an independent disciplinary panel.
May: Manchester United closed in on rivals Liverpool's as they won a third successive top-flight title, equaling Liverpool’s record of 18. United had actually endured an astonishing 26 years without a championship until the arrival of the taciturn Scot Alex Ferguson in 1986. Ferguson's success has been staggering, almost on the scale of that enjoyed by successive Liverpool dynasties.
June: Roger Federer overcame Andy Roddick in an epic and historic victory which lasted more than 4¼ hours with a 30-game fifth set, the longest in Wimbledon history, to secure his fifteenth grand-slam title. Not many expected it to be so easy, especially after Rafael Nadal stopped Federer yet again at the start of the year in Melbourne Park to bag his first hard-court Major crown.
July: An aging Tom Watson's fought valiantly against time itself and kept millions of fans glued to their television sets around the world. For the duration of the tournament, Watson's name remained at or near the top of the leaderboard. Yet at the end of each day's play, commentators gave all the reasons that 59-year-old with a replacement hip could possibly remain in contention. If wishing could make it so, the throngs at Turnberry would have anointed Watson with his sixth Claret Jug. When Watson's 8-footer ran by the 72nd hole, fans were denied their storybook ending and Stewart Cink became the British Open champion.
August: The Angling world was in mourning for Benson the celebrity carp. The death of Benson, who at 64lb 2oz (29kg) was the biggest common carp in Britain, won cult status for her size and looks, and for being caught at least 60 times.
Usain Bolt, a man who has been blessed with natural speed claiming triple gold and a double sprint record at the World Athletics Championships. The 21-year-old, whose razzmatazz and light-heartedness have offered a much-needed breath of fresh air to the world of athletics, shattered his own world records for the 100m and 200m, clocking 9.58 and 19.19sec respectively, while Jamaica again won the 4x100m relay to complete his hat-trick of gold medals.
September: 18-year-old athlete Caster Semenya from South Africa pulled out of her return to competitive sport amid growing fears over the psychological impact of rumours about her being a hermaphrodite (both male and female). After dominating her race at the world championships in Berlin, Semenya underwent blood and chromosome tests, as well as a gynaecological examination. The IAAF has said Semenya probably can keep her gold medal because the case was not related to a doping matter.
The former Renault Formula One managing director Flavio Briatore was effectively banned from motor sport for life, for his part in a scandal that the sport's governing body said was of "unparalleled severity". However, the World Motor Sport Council effectively gave Renault a green light to continue in formula one. The team, who chose not to contest Nelson Piquet Jr's claims that he was asked to crash into a wall during the 2008 Singapore grand prix in order to hand an advantage to his team-mate, Fernando Alonso, will be permanently banned only if they commit a "comparable breach" by the end of 2011.
October: Jenson Buttons became the tenth British Formula 1 World Champion in history after driving from 14th on the grid to 5th in the Brazilian Grand Prix. For the second year in a row, car number 22, driven by an Englishman (Lewis Hamilton) and powered by a Mercedes-Benz engine has finished fifth in Brazil to win the world championship!
November: The story of the year in Tennis should have been Roger Federer finally eclipsing Pete Sampras' record of 14 career Grand Slam titles but Andre Agassi sensational autobiography “Open” a frank memoir of the tennis champion life and his use crystal methylene.

The New York Yankees won the World Series. Nearly a decade after their dynasty ended on a blooper in the desert, the Yankees are baseball's best again and claim their 27th championship.
Unbelievably Thierry Henry tarnished his reputation with his handball against Ireland. The goal put France into the World Cup. Ireland rightly felt aggrieved and obviously launched an official appeal to replay the match. It was a terrible injustice, but FIFA won't ever sanction a replay, as this would be a most dangerous precedent to set. Imagine, England demanding a replay of the 1986 'Hand of God' match. Couldn't Spain rightly ask for their fiasco of a match versus South Korea in 2002 to be rescheduled? There are countless matches that have been decided in controversial circumstances. The referee in this instant - Martin Hanssen of Sweden - was banned for six months.
December: Dominating sports news, Tiger Woods has had a mixed year both on and off the golf course, left us dazed and confused by missing the cut at the Open. It was only the second time he had failed to play the final 36 holes of a major tournament. With his self-imposed exile from the game one can only imagine the drop in TV ratings and revenue. U.S. sports editors have also voted Woods “Athlete of the Decade”. The ballots have yet to be counted for "Husband of the Year.