Emirati Mohammed Ali is part of the UAE Shaheen squad entered into the Gulf Men’s League tournament at the 2024 Dubai Rugby Sevens for the first time. All photos: Antonie Robertson / The National
Five Emiratis – Mohammed Ali, Majed Al Balooshi, Mohammed Hatem, Mohammed Al Marar and Ibrahim Doori – will be part of the UAE Shaheen squad who will debut in the Gulf Men’s League at the Dubai Rugby Sevens.
UAE Shaheen’s chances of winning one of the Sevens’ blue riband events are complemented by playing alongside some of the finest locally based talent available including Fijian Sakiusa Naisau.
The rest of the squad are all Fijian, including a trio of players – Sakiusa Naisau, Niko Volavola and Emosi Vecenaua – who have won the sevens multiple times before.
UAE Shaheen train ahead of the Dubai Sevens tournament.
According to Mohammed Ali, UAE Shaheen are not just going to be making up the numbers when they face the leading teams in the Gulf, starting against Bahrain on Friday.
Emirati Mohammed Al Marar trains with the rest of the UAE Shaheen squad.
The progress of the Shaheen side is an endorsement of the work done by Apollo Perelini to develop the game among the indigenous population.
UAE Shaheen’s chances of winning one of the Sevens’ blue riband events are complemented by playing alongside some of the finest locally based talent available.
Other than for interruptions for the Gulf War and Covid 19, it has been staged every year since. It has changed out of sight since those early days when British servicemen based in what was then the Trucial States won an invitational tournament on sand.
