DUBAI // Just how far Abu Dhabi Saracens have come in such a short space of time will be clear when they host Kandy in the first West Asia Champions League on Tuesday.
The capital’s youngest club, who first have to navigate a tournament opener against Doha on Friday, are starting out on their fifth season in competitive rugby.
As such, they will be giving away 137 years worth of history to the Sri Lankan champions when the sides line up at Al Ghazal.
Given the rapid strides Saracens have made since their tentative entry to second-tier UAE rugby in 2011, they are unlikely to be phased, though.
The new competition may pit together the leading clubs from this side of the continent, but Saracens proved last season they are well deserving of being in such company.
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“To have already earned the achievement of having played in such a competition is a massive milestone for us,” said Jaen Botes, the Saracens captain.
“To be a part of it, as a player and as a club, is a good achievement. We are taking it as a good thing in terms of preparing for the new season, and setting a goal for where we want to be.”
Each of the four clubs — Olymp, the 2014 champions of Kazakhstan are the other side involved — are stepping into the unknown in the Champions League.
Saracens and Doha will hope to have gleaned something of a gauge of the standard of Kandy, at least by the result of their friendly against Abu Dhabi Harlequins on Friday.
Quins, the UAE champions who play Saracens and Doha regularly, travelled to the Sri Lankan hill country for a friendly at the weekend and won 32-17.
Craig Nutt, the Saracens player-coach, said his side are unsure what to expect from the Champions League, but know it will serve them well ahead of the domestic season, starting on September 25.
“It is going to be massively beneficial when it comes to the first game of the season against Harlequins, as a lot of our squad will play all three games and be match fit,” Nutt said.
“We would love to win it but it is not the be all and end all. It is about making sure we are ready for the season.”
The new competition is the first step towards creating a system to find a champion club for rugby on the continent, excluding Japan, according to Trevor Gregory, the chairman of Asia Rugby.
“Over the coming years, Asia Rugby hopes to develop this competition further to embrace more clubs and be replicated by an equivalent competition in the eastern half of Asia,” Gregory said.
The hope is, Gregory added, that “we can have a play off between the western and eastern winners for the right to call themselves Asia Rugby Club Champion.”
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