From channel surfing to changing the game: The startup club hoping to help grow rugby among Emiratis

Dr Abdulrehman Kazim became obsessed with the sport after chancing upon it on TV, and started a new club in his back yard

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  Dubai Knights, a team founded by Dr Abdulrehman Kazim with the aim of spreading the game among the Emirati community, run through training drills at Kent College. All photos: Dubai Knights / Soorya Kiran

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  Dr Abdulrehman Kazim landed on the game of rugby when he noticed the 2019 Rugby World Cup was part of his Starzplay subscription.

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  Dr Abdulrehman Kazim begun a club from scratch with a 10-year plan to play in the top tier of the domestic game.

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  The Knights fall perfectly into the UAERF’s mission of spreading the game to UAE nationals. The club have benefitted from the expertise of the federation’s pool of coaches.

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  Dubai Knights have around 60 members, the main core being Emirati, but also including players from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Jordan, as well as one South African.

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  Sakiusa Naisau, a Fiji-born back who is one of the national team’s leading players, and UAE Shaheen player Yousef Thani have been coaching the team.

An Emirati physician hopes to help grow rugby among UAE nationals after becoming obsessed with the sport, having happened on it by chance while channel hopping.

Dr Abdulrehman Kazim landed on the game when he noticed the 2019 Rugby World Cup was part of his Starzplay subscription.

He tuned in, and became besotted with it. It has reached the point he now plans holidays around rugby, has a house-full of rugby merchandise, and has even managed to source a subscription to watch Japanese club matches.

He has also begun a club from scratch with a 10-year plan to play in the top tier of the domestic game. His team, the Dubai Knights, started out when he WhatsApped four of his mates to come to his house to try out the new sport in his back yard.

Now they have around 60 members, the main core being Emirati, but also including players from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Jordan, as well as one South African.

After his first taste of the game when he tuned in to the Japan World Cup of 2019, it developed into an obsession by the time the next World Cup was played in France.

“I’ve been watching it religiously ever since – every league, going from the [English] Premiership, to [France’s second-tier competition] Pro D2, all the way to the Japanese League One,” Dr Kazim said.

“I’ve been watching every weekend, every single game. I don’t support a club, I don’t support a country – apart from ours. I just watch rugby. There’s not a single minute I have missed since 2023.”

Dubai Knights, a team founded by Abdulrehman Kazim with the aim of spreading the game among the Emirati community, run through training drills at Kent College. Photo: Dubai Knights / Soorya Kiran

It has consumed him to the point that, while his family headed off to Euro Disney while in France – on a holiday that also took in stops at some of the country’s biggest rugby clubs – he went off to find an out-of-the-way rugby superstore.

“My wife absolutely hates it,” he said. “There are some matches that overlap with each other, as some leagues overlap with each other.

“For example, the URC plays at the same time, the Top 14 plays at the same time, and the Premiership plays at the same time.

“I tried the three screens method. That is not a very good neural exercise, so I shifted to recording them and then watching them a bit later.

“I delete Instagram from my phone, and delete TikTok the whole weekend just so I can catch up on my rugby games and then install it back on Sunday.

“It’s been a never-ending cycle. Ever since that time I’ve just been completely into this sport, to the point where it has taken over my whole life.”

When learning about the game, his love for it was only enhanced when he discovered things like the pre-match Fijian war dance, the Cibi, plus the values inherent in the game.

“There’s a lot of things with rugby that show me this is not a regular sport,” he said.

“Like when [former Welsh referee] Nigel Owens is stood next to two props, who are huge, and says, ‘Enough, this has to stop right now.’ And they both say, ‘Yes, sir,’ and they move on.

“No one’s huffing and puffing, or putting their chest into the other person. It’s competition at its finest.”

Dr Kazim was thrilled to discover, during his voracious research, there was a UAE Rugby Federation, and domestic clubs.

All the more so when Yousef Shaker, one of the longest-serving Emirati participants in the sport and a UAERF coach, made an impromptu appearance at a Knights training session.

Yousef Shaker, one of the longest-serving Emirati participants in the sport and a UAERF coach, made an impromptu appearance at a Knights training session. Sarah Dea/The National

The team had started with Dr Kazim “annoying and pestering” friends to come and play it with him at his house.

His brothers refused, and his friends were sceptical initially. “These were people who have never seen a rugby ball in their life,” he said. “All they see is rugby is a dangerous sport, and that people are going to die.”

He got enough to play two v two in his back yard, then three v three, before they outgrew the space. They asked around the indoor sports centres in Dubai to see if they would accommodate them, with no luck, before hiring the outdoor five-a-side pitch at FlyDubai’s campus on Emirates Road in the height of summer.

Having finally settled for the sports field at Kent College as their home base, they received a surprise visit from Shaker.

“[The UAERF] didn’t know that we existed and we didn’t advertise,” Dr Kazim said. “We didn’t have an Instagram page. All we had was a WhatsApp group.

“I could see that uniform of UAE rugby a mile away, especially because Kent has a very long walkway to come to the pitch.

“He was extremely happy. I’m sure that was the dream of everyone at the federation to see this – Emiratis playing out of nowhere.”

The Knights fall perfectly into the UAERF’s mission of spreading the game to UAE nationals. The club have benefitted from the expertise of the federation’s pool of coaches.

Sakiusa Naisau, a Fiji-born back who is one of the national team’s leading players, and UAE Shaheen player Yousef Thani have been coaching the team.

“It’s because of them that we are growing,” Dr Kazim said. “They have opened the path for us. They showed us how to do things, how to operate, what’s the rugby scene in the UAE, and when [Shaker] came and spoke to us, he gave us a very long motivational speech.”

It has meant what started out as some fun between mates has turned into a formal vision for a club. Dr Kazim’s 10-year plan has three phases, which he has termed “the build”, “the ascent”, and “legacy”.

He hopes to have a team ready to enter the social event at next year’s Dubai Sevens. The next step would be an XVs team in the lowest tier of domestic competition.

I really want to grow rugby here in the UAE and I want to grow rugby within our community, the Arab communities, and also every other community.

Dr Abdulrehman Kazim

The ultimate goal is to have a side that is competitive in West Asia Super Rugby, while also maintaining a successful women’s section.

“It is about growing rugby,” he said. “That has been my goal from day one, and will always be my goal.

“I really want to grow rugby here in the UAE and I want to grow rugby within our community, the Arab communities, and also every other community.

“We are not rushing anything. We want to build this team as we go. We don’t want this team to just come along, have a couple of seasons and then, ‘Bye bye’.

“We want to take it step by step and ensure that when we are ready we are 100 per cent ready. We’re not expecting when we’re ready to [enter competition] to win the league. But we're expecting when we are ready to have a fair say in that competition.”