Dubai Exiles Today
We are a sports organisation dedicated to playing, enjoying and promoting the game of Rugby Union in Dubai, the UAE and as a founding member of the AGRFU (Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union) to develop rugby throughout the Gulf region and across the Middle East and Asia.
In recent years with the increasing success and popularity of the Dubai Rugby Sevens tournament (which we host and established in 1969), we are proud to be involved in the promotion of international sevens rugby at the highest echelon as well as rugby in general at all levels. In 1999 along with our gracious patron HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (Ruler of Dubai, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE), sponsor Emirates Airlines and the AGRFU, we were honored to host the first ever games to be played in the IRB World Rugby Sevens Series. A privilege which (apart from 2001 due to the tragic events of 9/11 ) has been repeated annually.
Success has brought other rewards and although we still proudly retain our historical title- Dubai Exiles RFC, there is very little left apart from photographs and memories for one to imagine our humble beginnings. In March 2007 we vacated our ancestral home in Al Awir which had once been a lone sand pitch and was developed over time to house four magnificent grassed playing fields, two clubhouses, bar and netball courts. It was here that many residents and visitors enjoyed playing rugby, soccer, netball, Gaelic football and hurling as well as attending all manner of world class concerts and other crowd pulling events. A new chapter was written with our relocation to our present headquarters which is at the magnificant new 7he Sevens Rugby Stadium on the outshirts of Dubai.
Teams both amateur and professional from all over the world regularly visit us to enjoy the traditional hospitality both on and off the field and can range from fully professional teams travelling for training camps to social tours from various teams or visiting navy ships looking to stretch their land legs with a game of rugby against the club known throughout the rugby world simply as the 'Exiles'.