This year was the 42nd anniversary of the Dubai Rugby Sevens, a tournament that has grown significantly in its lifetime.
This, the 12th year that Dubai has hosted the HSBC Sevens World Series, saw the inaugural IRB Women’s Sevens Challenge Cup, a new competition that will become an annual feature and the introduction of the Gulf U18 Girls competition. The existing tournament has grown in size ensuring that rugby development is represented alongside the highest level of the game.
The Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens continues to be one of the most attended Sevens tournament on the HSBC Sevens World Series circuit and is unique by being the only tournament to host a major invitation competition and an IRB Women’s Sevens Challenge Cup alongside the HSBC Sevens World Series.
There were 16 Sevens World Series men’s teams, 8 IRB women’s teams and a record 170 invitation teams competing this year. There is always a great atmosphere at 7he Sevens and this year was no exception as we celebrated the 40th anniversary of UAE National Day. Fittingly, it was also a landmark day for UAE rugby as the newly founded national team appeared in its home tournament for the first time.
As always it was an early start for the Fujairah Team, having to be at the Registration tent by 8.30am. With Shane being troubled by a calf strain, there was just enough time to register Josh in as his replacement. Poor Henry having worked late into the night spraying numbers on the shirts, only to be told they weren’t visable enough, so with a bit of improvisation and lots of tape the team were good to go.
Our first match we faced the Barrelhouse Yobs. Both teams were evenly matched, but unfortunately the yobs drew first blood with a try, lucky for us they didn’t manage the conversion .We fought back with a hearty try from Luke Richards, then another try by them was counteracted with a super try by Jamie Flemming for the Bulls, the match stood at 10-10. To our dismay the Barrelhouse Yobs scored one last try and made the conversion leaving the final score 17-10. The taped numbers didn’t hold up to well, so the cavalry were sent in search of brighter paint! Neon Orange replaced the tape.
Next we were up against Riyadh Falcons, the team that beat us in the Gulf Men’s Open Plate final last year .The play flowed back and forth over the whole field and as the game unfolded it seemed that neither side had distinct superiority. Riyadh managed to shut down many of Fujairah’s attacks with some ferocious three-man team tackling. However Fujairah was up to the task of keeping the Falcons out and Josh charged through their defence scoring two tremendous tries and kicking the conversions. Marnix made some great tackles but took a strong blow to the ribs, which put him out for the rest of the tournament. Sadly a last grasp breakthrough from Riyadh ended in the ball snatched from the charge right on the try-line and attached a penalty try to put Riyadh 21-14 ahead at the whistle.
On Day two, the Bulls third match was against a vastly more established side, UAE Wasps. As I understand it this team had won the Gulf Men’s league at some point, so not sure how exactly they were put into the same draw as our lads. Predictably the Wasps proved to be a very competent side, we gained more injuries in this match than in the whole tournament! Henry sustained a fractured wrist, whilst Charlie and Edward suffered some hard hitting tackles. The Bulls fought back hard with a great try from Phil and a well deserved and gusty try by Jamie. Regrettably we lost to the Wasps, but found out later in the day that they had been disqualified, I believe for playing players that were not registered with their team.
This meant that the Bulls were now in the Quarter Finals of the Plate. Unfortunately this match wasn’t until 7.20pm, at this point we weren’t sure if we would have seven fit players! Despite the injuries, the guys dug deep and put on a good show, Darryl showed some fantastic tackling skills and with good support from Rangi, almost made the try line. Luke Higgie had a great game but had to leave the field with a shin injury. James scored the last try of the tournament for the Bulls to huge shouts and cheers from the Fujairah supporters. The score didn’t reflect the match, Muscat 2 won by 28-7.
On behalf of the team, a big thank you to everyone who came to support the Bulls it was a great atmosphere. Thanks to James for putting the effort into getting everyone to the training sessions and Edward for taking on the job as Team Captain. All credit to the Fujairah Bulls, they gave it their all as always, despite having limited training facilities (The Hilton Beach!) Well done guys!
Last but not least I have to mention the numbers yet again, we discovered in the last match that they glowed in the dark!
Julie Buck
