Apollo Perelini to ‘fast track local players’ after becoming UAE Rugby Shaheen manager

Apollo Perelini said his main task as the new manager of the UAE Rugby Federation’s programme to develop their all-Emirati Shaheen squad is to ready recruits and “fast track local players” into the national 15s team.

Apollo Perelini is charged with helping boost the numbers of Emiratis playing rugby. Pawan Singh / The National

Apollo Perelini says his main task as the new manager of the UAE Rugby Federation’s programme to develop their all-Emirati Shaheen squad is to ready recruits and “fast track local players” into the national 15s team.

The New Zealand-born former dual code international was introduced in his new role on Monday and appears to be the federation’s ideal candidate to develop the country’s aspiring talents in the sport.

As a player, Perelini chalked up almost 200 appearances in the top tier of UK rugby league and ran out more than 150 times in England’s premier rugby union division. He has lived and worked in Dubai for several years.

“The pathway programme has been there for a couple of years and I am looking to take it to the next step and fast track the local players,” said Perelini, who played forward at league’s St Helens and rugby’s Sale Sharks in the UK, and was the forwards coach of the UAE national team ahead of the Asian Championship in May.

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Perelini, 45, knows a thing or two about nurturing and developing young talent in his role as the director of sport at Repton School Dubai, as well as his involvement with two sports academies in the UAE — the Apollo Perelini Rugby Skills Academy and Jets, a football academy for women. He said he hopes to help speed up the rugby education of young Emiratis to graduate from sevens to the 15-a-side game.

“There are a lot of good and enthusiastic local players in the system at the moment and my main responsibility is to strengthen their weaknesses,” he said. “Most of them haven’t played rugby for that long, so it is important that I teach them good fundamental skills. That’s my main plan at the moment.

“The key for me is to try and develop as many players as possible and develop them to a high level so they move forward and their pathway is eventually to play for the national team.”

Perelini will begin his new role after the holy month of Ramadan with the objective of having a team entered in the Community Shield, a third-tier competition in the domestic season, scheduled to begin in September.

“The idea is to provide the local players the opportunity to play regular rugby by entering a team in the competition,” he said. “There is a subtle way to bring them in and expose them to those who have been playing for decades.

“The majority of the games played by the Emiratis is the sevens format ... but my plan is to up-skill them in the 15s game.”

Perelini, who represented Western Samoa in union at the 1991 Rugby World Cup and the Rugby League World Cup in 1995, said his programme will require ­patience.

“Most of it is long-term plans, because you can’t achieve things in over two years, but perhaps with a three- to-five-year plan, and that, too, with the players who can get to a certain level,” he said. “Some of it can be achieved. My plan is to get them fully established and fully committed.

“It is a big challenge, particularly when you have to deal with kids without much of a rugby background.

“I want to develop their potential. Not everyone has the same talent, but they can develop through hard work.”

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