DUBAI // Apollo Perelini has reiterated his belief that the UAE could play at the 2019 World Cup, and says they are eyeing South Korea’s place in the top flight of Asian rugby.
The national team bounced back to the second tier of continental competition after winning the Asian Rugby Championship Division 2 in convincing fashion in May.
Repeating that success in Division 1 at the end of the forthcoming season would give the national team a shot at playing in the elite, three-team division, currently comprising Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea.
With Japan already qualified for their home World Cup, the second ranked Asian country in 2018 will have a repechage playoff against the winners of the Oceania Cup.
Perelini believes seven wins over the next three years could earn the UAE qualification. That would represent a vast improvement for a side who has only been playing together as single-nation entity for five years. Out of 25 Tests to date, the UAE have won six and lost 18.
However, the performance manager and head coach is thinking big, saying: “I can build a team in three years.”
“If you win seven games as a national team, you could go to the World Cup. Is that possible? Absolutely, yes,” Perelini said.
“It is achievable. Hong Kong are a little bit different in that they are centrally contracted, full-time players. We are not in that position, but can we still compete against Hong Kong? Absolutely.
“We have the cohort of players. There are good enough players around Dubai at the moment.”
Unlike Asia’s leading rugby nations, Japan and Hong Kong, the UAE has no centrally contracted, professional players.
Perelini thinks that will be feasible - even “inevitable” - in the future, but only via greater corporate investment in a federation which is still relatively in its infancy.
He points to the fact Hong Kong generates substantial funds via its annual Sevens competition. While Dubai does have a greater capacity at its own Sevens event, the UAE Rugby Federation do not own that competition.
“The game of rugby is still secondary to football here,” Perelini said. “If you look at the national cricket team, they have gone full time.
“There is going to come a point where UAE rugby will be in a position where they will have to make decisions if they want to continue to progress up the ladder. It will be inevitable soon.
“It all comes down to infrastructure, sponsorship and money. Hong Kong are in a different position because they own their tournament [Hong Kong Sevens].
“They make a lot of money from that, and we don’t have that. They have a lot of capital to spend. We don’t, but we are only five years old.”
The former dual-code international is hoping to increase the amount of matches the national team play annually. They have played just six Tests in the past three years.
Over the past month, the UAE Rugby Federation have emailed the unions of Latvia, Slovenia, Uganda, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea with the intention of organising Tests. However, finding a a suitable window in the calendar has so far proved problematic.
Perelini hopes more matches will help the national team topple Malaysia in Division 2 this season, then haul in South Korea to earn a place in the top tier.
“If we continue to progress the way we are doing at the moment, we can be ranked a lot higher,” he said.
“Korea is the only side that stands in the way of UAE being in the top three. They are the weakest of that three at the moment.”
pradley@thenational.ae
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