Summer signing, Clodagh Hanniffy, had a magnificent Saturday afternoon
The Dubai Exiles women’s rugby squad enjoyed themselves in the opening round of the UAE Women’s 7s Series held in Zayed Sports City on Saturday morning. For the first time the Exiles entered teams in the ‘A League’ and ‘B League’ with both teams enjoying the afternoon Abu Dhabi sunshine.
Kitty Turner proved herself to be a constant threat to the opposition
Cameroon international, Rosine Priso, carried hard throughout
It was the Exiles‘ women’s ‘A Team’, cue music, that got the first match of the 2024-25 UAE Women’s 7s Series underway with 29 – 0 win over Al Maha, the all Emirati women’s rugby team.
Exiles‘ Ladies summer signing, Clodagh Hanniffy, quickly set about showing the participants of women’s Gulf rugby why she was recently made the trip to China with the UAE National side for the Asia Rugby Sevens Series last month. She consistently set about the opposition in both attack and defence and proved herself to be an invaluable member of the Exiles squad.
Nadine Fourie can always be relied on to run the hard lines
Next up for the Exiles was the ladies of the Dubai Hurricanes. In recent seasons the Hurricanes had dominated the Emirates Dubai 7s Gulf Womens tournament until Phoenix wrestled the title from them. Since the reformation of the Exiles ladies rugby section three seasons ago, the Exiles hadn’t managed a win over their Sevens Stadium neighbours, at least until Saturday afternoon.
 Hurricanes 1Exiles 1 
7 - 26Full Time |
It was a dominant performance from the ladies in black, both attack and especially in defence. Exiles captain, Amanda Hameon, opened the scoring after outpacing the Hurricanes cover defence to reach the try line. The second Exiles try went to Charlotte Gill after some quick thinking from Rachel Ritchie. Rachel, who played her rugby in Scotland before moving to Dubai, was the first to react from a penalty awarded by referee Tony Duminy.
With the Hurricanes‘ defence facing the wrong way, Rachel moved the ball to Amanda Hameon, who promptly put Charlotte through an enormous gap and under the posts to score.
Exiles captain and UAE international, Amanda Hameon, opens the Exiles account.
Rachel Ritchie makes a tackle – one of many!
It was left to Clodagh Hanniffy to punctuate the match with a very resounding full stop. Clodagh had helped herself to a score earlier in the game, but her second try gave some clear insight into the talent she possesses. An in-and-out on Hurricanes‘ UAE international, Hatty Witty, and the impressive Irish player was off to the try line to wrap things up for the Exiles.
Clodagh Hanniffy had too much gas for UAE international, Hatty Witty, and scored two tries against the Hurricanes
There was a lot of celebrating after the final whistle, and deservedly so. After three seasons of trying the Exiles‘ women had finally got over the line against their brightly coloured next door neighbour by twenty six points to seven.
Exiles 1AD Harlequins 1 
14 - 19Full Time |
Next up was a cup semi-final against hosts. and eventual tournament winners, the Abu Dhabi Harlequins. The Exiles women let this one get way after a huge tussle in which the game could have gone either way, eventually losing out by just 5 points to the hosts.
Fatma Alsuwaidi back in an Exiles’ shirt
After narrowly losing out to the Abu Dhabi Harlequins in their semi-final, the third / fourth play off once again pitted the Sevens Stadium neighbours against each other. The Hurricanes had lost their semi-final by 24 point to 5 against Dubai Phoenix and were lining up for the second time the same afternoon against the Exiles.
Exiles 1Hurricanes 1
19 - 12Full Time |
The rematch was a much tighter affair, but after 15 minutes of play, when referee Alistair Whillier blew the final whistle, the Exiles had cemented third spot in the opening round of the UAE Women’s 7s Series with a 19 points to 12 win over the Hurricanes.
Exiles Women ‘A Squad’ Round 1
| Player | T | C | P | DG | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clodagh Hanniffy | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25 |
| Amanda Hameon | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 |
| Rosine Priso | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 15 |
| Lyn Fenby | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Charlotte Gill | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Kitty Turner | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Fatma Alsuwaidi | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Aydia Coetzee | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nadine Fourie | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Laura Horne | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rachel Ritchie | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Alex Bellard | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Exiles Women ‘B Squad’ Round 1
| Player | T | C | P | DG | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amina Nabhan | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Kirsten Brits | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Monique Adcock | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Nicole Meechan | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| Rachael McNaughtan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Amy Eaton | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Francesca Collins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Suzanne Hotson | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Shihaam Kader | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Heather Murray | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Alisha East | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lucy Bridge | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
