Friends become foes when UAE face Philippines in must-win Asia Rugby Championship clash

The UAE, in black and red, in action against Sri Lanka during their Asia Rugby Championship Division 1 clash. Courtesy: Asia Rugby/ Tigers Super Sports Media

When Ben Bolger leads the UAE out in the most important match of their year on Saturday, he will find a player who gave a reading at his wedding in direct opposition.

Bolger succeeded Phil Abraham as the Abu Dhabi Harlequins captain this season. The Quins teammates are close friends, but for 80 minutes in Malaysia will be rivals when the UAE play the Philippines in the Asia Rugby Championship Division 1.

The stakes are about as high as they get at this level of Asian rugby. The winners can plan for another year in Division 1, while the losers will be relegated.

The fixture marks the end of an eight-year Philippines career for Abraham, who plans to retire from playing international rugby at the culmination of this tournament.

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It is fitting UAE will provide the opposition. The Chicago-born hooker, whose mother is from the Philippines, lives and works in Abu Dhabi.

The last time the two sides met, when the Philippines sealed the UAE’s relegation from the top flight in 2013, started the process that led Abraham to Abu Dhabi.

After that game in Manila, he was selected for a random dope test along with Malcolm Greenslade and Graham Murphy, two Harlequins players from the UAE line up.

Their conversation in the doping control room set in motion a sequence of events that led him to join Quins, become good mates with a handful of Saturday’s opposition — and speak at the captain’s wedding.

“It was really lucky because I got connected with Quins straight away, and now those guys are my closest friends in Abu Dhabi,” Abraham, 34, said.

“It opened up a really good community for me and my wife to settle in to. It made it home. It is special for me to end on this game.

“Ben Bolger, the UAE captain, is probably my best friend in Abu Dhabi. I went to his wedding, and actually read a scripture at it. The Quins boys are close, and I also know many of the other UAE players having played against them for the past three years.”

Bolger, who will line up at inside centre against the Philippines, rather than his usual role on the side of the scrum, says it is going to be surreal playing against someone who has only ever been a teammate until now.

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Phil Abraham and his family. Victor Besa for The National

“Phil is probably my best mate in the Middle East, we are very, very close, so this is going to be a funny experience,” said Bolger, who led Harlequins to five trophies this season.

“He is one of the best blokes I know, so getting to play against him after playing so many games with him, and winning and losing together, will be interesting. I look forward to it.”

Abraham says his insider knowledge of the UAE will not count for much. The four sides in the competition have seen much of each other already, given the matches have been played one after each other, at the same venue.

The competition has become a “war of attrition,” according to Abraham, because of the sapping weather and pitch conditions that have prevailed in Malaysia’s third largest city.

The UAE are without five first-choice players for the tournament finale. Josh Ives and Kris Greene are suspended. Jaen Botes misses out due to concussion, while Dan Bell and Rikus Swart are injured.​

Apollo Perelini, the UAE coach, said the average body temperature readings for his players after Wednesday's loss in the 2pm kick-off to Sri Lanka were 38.5 degrees.

The forecast suggests the relegation decider between UAE and Philippines, which is again a 2pm kick off as the venue does not have floodlights, could be played out in 33 degree heat, with 75 per cent humidity.

Players from the UAE are used to hot and humid conditions, but Bolger says this is like nothing they have previously experienced.

“It really has been sapping, like nothing I have played in before,” he said. “Early in our season, we are used to playing in humid conditions, but nothing like this. It has been really, really tough.

“That is the same for all teams, and it is not an excuse, but the amount it takes out of you makes it tough. But we just have to do our best to try to win this game.”

The stated aim of promotion may be beyond them now, after defeats to Malaysia and Sri Lanka, but the UAE are focused on maintaining their place in the division with success against the Philippines.

“There is some impetus, and the need to win this game, but we have been going into every game with the same attitude,” Bolger said.

“It is a big one. The boys are ready to go. All teams are suffering. The whole squad has been used and the boys are ready to go.”

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