UAE beat the heat to thrash Malaysia in Asian Rugby Championship

National team set for highest ever finish in continental competition after demolition job at a sweltering Sevens Stadium

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  UAE's Sakiusa Naisau during the Asian Rugby Championship match against Malaysia at the Sevens Stadium in Dubai on Friday, June 21, 2024. All photos Chris Whiteoak / The National

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  UAE celebrate victory over Malaysia in their Asian Rugby Championship match at the Sevens Stadium

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  UAE's Sakiusa Naisau is tackled during the match against Malaysia

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  UAE dominated their Asian Rugby Championship match against Malaysia

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  UAE defeated Malaysia 62-19 in their Asian Rugby Championship match in Dubai

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  Malaysia's Harith El Iskandar gathers the ball at the Sevens Stadium

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  UAE's Justin Walsh scores on Friday

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  UAE's Sakiusa Naisau scores at the Sevens Stadium

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  UAE's Sakiusa Naisau celebrates scoring against Malaysia

It was the perfect end to the best night in the 13-and-a-half-year history of UAE rugby as a competitive entity. Or at least the best since two weekends earlier.

So much so that, in an air-conditioned box just above hundreds of rapt supporters, an Emirati official in a kandura was bopping along to the rap music that was booming out of the stadium speakers. It had been that sort of evening.

Gareth Newman, the replacement scrum half, had just sent through an inch perfect grubber kick for Sakiusa Naisau to touch down his third try and the UAE’s 10th.

The seal was set on a 62-19 win over a Malaysia side who were eight place above them in the World Rugby rankings.

It was the most emphatic exclamation mark to a second statement win in the space of consecutive weeks that said: “UAE rugby is back.”

It is so very back. In fact, scenes like this are more or less unprecedented here. Before this month, it had been years since the UAE had played home Test matches at all. Some years they did not even have a single 15-a-side fixture of any sort.

They have spent the recent past washing around the middle tiers of Asian rugby, getting some unlikely stamps on their passports, but all the while craving a return to the elite of continental competition.

And now, here they are. Assuming Hong Kong beat South Korea on Saturday, the UAE will finish in second place in the Asian Rugby Championship, their highest placing ever.

“We were laughing about the fact we were playing Pakistan last year, then suddenly we are playing these boys," Jacques Benade, UAE's head coach, said.

“The first game [a 52-5 loss] against Hong Kong might have been the best thing that could have happened to us. It showed us that we were not even close to where we want to be.

“We learnt so much out of that game. It showed in the second half against Korea [when UAE came back to win 36-32] we need to be patient and play our game.”

Many of the home players had played in Pitch 1 finals at the Dubai Sevens in the past. Only once before, though, had an XVs match attracted crowds like there have been for back-to-back fixtures against South Korea and Malaysia over the past two weeks at The Sevens Stadium.

Back in 2011, a crowd that was officially recorded as 2,000 watched the new UAE team ship 111 points against mighty Japan in their debut season in what was then the Asian Five Nations.

The attraction back then was seeing the likes of soon-to-be World Cup stars like Michael Leitch playing in a Japan team coached by former All Black John Kirwan. The home side? Well, they were there, too.

Now, 13 years on, it was the UAE side who were the main attraction, the reason that hundreds had come along to watch, braving conditions which were uncomfortable at best.

Test match rugby in June in the UAE is a precarious business. It must have been close to the heat-stress threshold permitted by World Rugby for matches to go ahead. Everyone was a sweaty, rancid mess. And that was just those watching. Goodness only knows how the players managed it.

They did not so much just make it through as put on a show. The efforts were led by Matt Mills, the home captain who is one of a number of players in this side who might have wanted to stop counting his birthdays a while back.

And yet the students he coaches in his day job at Dubai English Speaking College would have struggled to match his humidity-defying feats against Malaysia.

Bearing in mind it was tough to even sit up straight for 80 minutes in such sapping conditions, the fact he was still fit to conduct a lucid TV interview and carry his two young children onto the field for celebrations at the end was remarkable.

When Malaysia stole an intercept try against the run of play in the second half, Mills even sprinted back to chase the lost cause. It was like he was doing some mid-match sprint training, just to test himself.

“It means the world to us,” Mills said of winning home Test matches in front of such an appreciable crowd in his post-match interview.

There were performances like his all through the home team. Jaen Botes, for example, hauled himself through a commendable shift in an uncustomary position in the second row.

With five minutes to go, while awaiting another Malaysia restart, he called across to the UAE coaches’ box in the stand to say, “I’m done.” Or words to that effect.

The coaches smiled at each other, and replied with, “Nah, you’re alright.” He deserved to stay out there and see the job through.

Just before that, Chris McKee’s blinding performance in the back row had earned himself a sit down and an ovation from the enclave of Abu Dhabi Harlequins’ supporters in the stand.

Then there was the third member of the back-row union, Epeli Davetawalu. He is presumably still out there now, looking for someone else to tackle or yet another crash ball to run onto. He is completely tireless.

There were a number of fine tries to celebrate. The one that will live longest in the memory was the second scored by Emosi Vecenaua.

His introduction as a substitute near the end of the first half against a Malaysia side who were already weary and beaten just felt mean. He had plenty of time to inflict more punishment.

His try 10 minutes into the second half was a classic, preceded as it had been by him lying on the floor, unsubtly trying to draw the ref’s attention to him being the victim of an off-the-ball hit.

Seeing he wasn’t going to get the decision, Vecenaua got off the grass and took matters into his own hands. He took possession of the ball and summarily bulldozed his way through half the Malaysian defence and touched the ball down in the corner, much to the delight of the crowd.

“We were talking about the first game against Korea and thinking should we be playing it on Pitch 1 or on Pitch 2 because it is a big field,” Benade said.

“But the crowd against Korea was outstanding. Then today it was the same again. It just lifted the boys. That game against Korea made the boys understand we have a good lot of support for UAE rugby.

“There are a lot of families and a lot of young players who have come to support, and our boys really, really appreciate that.”