UAE Rugby reaches the high-land in Thailand

Left to right: DuRandt Gerber, Matt Mills and Apollo Perelni

It was all go at the Surakul Stadium in Phuket, Thailand as the UAE’s Men’s and Women’s rugby squads kicked off against Singapore, Thailand (A & B), Bangladesh, Chinese Taipei and Briars Rugby from Sydney, Australia in the men’s Asia Rugby Sevens Trophy tournament and the women’s Phuket 7s Invitational International tournament.

Six Dubai Exiles made the trip to Thailand for the Phuket 7s. Teenagers Alfie Wilson, Hannes Kruger and Marcus Kruger along with Matt Mills who also has the honour of captaining the UAE men’s team for the two day tournament.

Dubai Exiles RFC‘s Under 16s coach and long time Premiership Number 10, DuRandt Gerber assisted UAE Head Coach Apollo Perelini.

Robyn Etherington was once again in a UAE women’s shirt and representing her adopted home. Robyn has made an enormous impact at the Dubai Exiles since she arrived earlier in the season, bringing an abundance of energy and enthusiasm as well as scoring plenty of tries in the UAE Women’s 7s Series.

It was a tough, rain swept, opening day at the office for the UAE’s men in the Asia Rugby 7s Trophy competition. An opening match against Singapore, a team that would finish the day top of the table with 3 wins from 3 games, was a tough introduction to international rugby for many of the youngsters in Apollo Perelini’s UAE squad. When the referee blew the 14 minutes of seven-a-side rugby to a close, Singapore had posted 19 points to the UAE’s 5. Mohammad Hatam crossing to score the only try for the United Arab Emirates in their opening game.

The second match for the UAE men was a far easier affair against Thailand ‘B’. Dubai Exiles teenager Hannes Kruger grabbed himself his first international points with a brace of tries. UAE Captain and Dubai Exiles back row Matt Mills grabbed another with former Dubai Hurricane, Sakiusa Naisau also crossing and contributing to a 28 – 5 win.

Left to right: Hannes Kruger, Marcus Kruger, DuRandt Gerber, Alfie Wilson and Matt Mills

Left to right: Hannes Kruger, DuRandt Gerber and Alfie Wilson

With heavy rain disrupting the schedule, the UAE men’s final match of the day pitted them against Thailand ‘A’ in what turned into the closest of contests. Thailand got themselves off to a blistering start, wing Lattaphon Lornongkol crossing to score out wide in the opening two minutes. A second score was quick to follow after Dubai Tigers’ Emosi Vecanua was sin-binned for a no arms tackle.

In the second half the big Fijian was keen to make amends for his discretion and powered over from 20 metres out bludgeoning through attempted tackles from three defenders. Thailand scored next and looked to be cruising before Dubai Exiles’ Hannes Kruger crossed under the posts to make it 14 – 15 with the restart imminent and no time on the clock. The UAE almost regathered the kick off but it wasn’t to be. On this occasion the referee blew for a knock-on and brought an end to a game that just ‘could have been’ for the UAE team.

Men’s Asia Rugby 7s Trophy Tournament

Day one in the Women’s Invitational Sevens got off to a much brighter start for the UAE ladies. An opening win by 19 – 5 over Thailand ‘B’ got things off to a great start, it was a match that Dubai Exiles RFC’s Robyn Etherington clearly enjoyed herself causing all sorts of problems for the Thailand’ defense.

That game was quickly followed up by a 19 – 0 win over Briars Rugby. The ladies from Briars travelling to Phuket all the way from from Sydney, Australia.

Similar to the men’s competition the last match for the UAE ladies was Thailand ‘A’. Despite best defnsive efforts Thailand‘s continuous pass and loop created all sorts of space on the outside for their wings to exploit and they ran out with a 27 – 0 win.

Women’s Invitational International Tournament – Phuket 7s

When Day 2 of the Phuket tournament arrived it was imperative that the UAE men got a win over Chinese Taipei to cement themselves into the knock-out stages of the tournament. Chinese Taipei had acquitted themselves superbly on Day 1. Big wins over Thailand ‘B’ and Bangladesh with only a narrow defeat to Singapore, 14 – 12, to blemish their opening day. But the UAE delivered a demolition job on the Sunday morning, a 31 – 0 win and a play-off place guaranteed.

The semi-final pitted the UAE against Thailand ‘A’, a team that had narrowly beaten the United Arab Emirates by 15 – 14 in the pool stages. The Phuket semi-final was a completely different affair. The UAE men’s team had clearly had three Shredded Wheat that morning, or maybe the ‘travel legs’ had been run off, whatever it was the Day 2 team was on top of things and definitely on top of their opponents.

When the final whistle blew the UAE had avenged their pool match defeat with a 19 – 5 win. Tries from Hannes Kruger, Cornelius Steyn and Sakiusa Naisau had catapulted the UAE into, at least based on Saturday’s performances, an unlikely Asia Men’s Sevens Trophy Final.

The UAE men’s 7s team took the spoils, and the title, at the Phuket 7s after a golden score against Singapore in the Asia Rugby 7s Trophy Final at the Surakul Stadium.

The first half saw Singapore race out to a 12 – 0 lead after tries from Hidayat Jeffrydin and Adam Vine. Jeffrydin converting his own score for the 12 – 0 lead. The UAE’s reply was swift. Emosi Vecanua attracted the attention of far too many of Singapore’s defenders and when he moved the ball out of contact Mohammad Hatam was on hand to post the UAE’s first score on the Surakul scoreboard. Mohammed Hatam added another score as the half time hooter sounded and with Sakiusa Naisau‘s conversion it was 12 – 12 at half time.

The script for the second half couldn’t have been written by even the most creative of imaginations. Hidayat Jeffrydin acrobatically scored for Singapore in the corner. Unfortunately the Singaporean play-maker’s audition for Cirque du Soleil badly damaged his shoulder and he was unable to continue in the match. With 2 minutes left on the clock Singapore were leading 17 – 12, however the Sarukul scoreboard read 19 – 12 despite the conversion attempt missing its mark by a long way.

Majid Al Balooshi got over the line for the UAE as the clock turned red pulling the score back to 17 – 17. The scoreboard read 19 – 17. Dubai Exiles RFC‘s Hannes Kruger stepped up to take a conversion with everybody at the game believing that the kick was needed to draw the match. The kick missed. Singapore celebrated, handshakes and pats on the back were delivered by both sides.

As the UAE women’s team ran onto the pitch with Thailand ‘A‘ for the final of the Women’s Invitational International Tournament there were all sorts of discussions happening on the sideline. Both of the women’s tournament finalists were ushered off the pitch, someone had got their sums right and – it was extra time in the men’s final.

It didn’t take long for the ‘Golden Score‘ to be delivered. Fittingly it was a very pacy Mohammad Hatam that crossed to give the UAE the title – a title which had looked reasonably unlikely 24 hours earlier.

Left to right: UAE Captain Matt Mills, Alfie Wilson, DuRandt Gerber, Robyn Etherington and Hannes Kruger

The UAE women’s 7s team had enjoyed a pretty good Day 1 in Phuket. Opening wins over Thailand ‘B’ and Briars Rugby had got things going for the UAE ladies before a tough 27 – 0 loss to Thailand ‘A’ brought the opening day to a chastening close.

Despite a loss in the opening match of Day 2 to Singapore the UAE had qualified for the knock out stages and a semi-final against Singapore, a team that they’d lost to by 17 points to 7 in the day’s opening match. With most people back in the United Arab Emirates who were watching the matches on Asia Rugby’s social media streams expecting Singapore to post another win the UAE ladies had a different idea and grabbed a place in the final with a 15 – 12 win. A try from Hannah Underhill was followed up with two tries from Dubai Exiles‘ Robyn Etherington to seal the win.

The ladies’ final didn’t prove to be the dream ending for the UAE. With so much energy and emotion poured into the semi-final against Singapore in the final a fired up Thailand ‘A’ proved to be a too much of an ask for the UAE. Hollie Murphy scored the only try for the UAE women’s 7s side in a 22 – 5 loss to a Thailand ‘A’ team that had been very impressive over the two days.

UAE National Coach Apollo Perelini

It proved to be another great weekend away in the international rugby stage for the UAE and Head Coach Apollo Perelini. In their previous international tournament, Qatar in November 2021, both the UAE men and UAE Women had taken the title in their respective competitions. In Phuket the UAE men took the title and the women finished, on this occasion, as runners-up. The UAE also had the leading try scorer over the two days for the men’s tournament. Mohammed Hatam scoring 6 tries. For the women, Hannah Underhill and the Exiles‘ Robyn Etherington finished the tournament with 3 tries apiece.