Ian Bremner: We must be greedier against Kazakhstan

UAE's national rugby team look ahead to Kazahkstan on Friday after their somewhat disappointing opening draw in the Asian Five Nations.

Bruce Birtwistle, the UAE rugby union coach, right, addresses the team during a training on April 18 at The Sevens in Dubai. After a debuting with a 13-13 draw against Sri Lanka, the UAE squad will host Kazahkstan on Friday in their second Asian Five Nations match.Show less

DUBAI // The UAE may have failed to win a debut Test which they deemed "must-win" in the build-up to it, yet the 13-13 draw in Sri Lanka could still prove crucial in the battle to avoid relegation in the HSBC Asian Five Nations.

That is the view of Ian Bremner, the UAE Rugby Association's chief executive, who is urging the national team's players to be "greedier" in their meeting with Kazakhstan on Friday evening in Abu Dhabi.

The Kazakhs, who finished second in last year's tournament, suffered a damaging defeat to Hong Kong in their opening fixture, and lost two players to red cards in the process.

With the last-placed side in the Top Five set to be demoted, the UAE regard victory this weekend as vital.

"Second time out, I think everyone would be looking for a considerable improvement," Bremner said. "We are at home, against a Kazakhstan side who are difficult at the best of times, and we have to look at this as being a game we really have to win so that we are accumulating points.

"We have opened our account, which is more than Kazakhstan did. That sets the scene, and we have to go out in this game very positively.

"We are playing at home for the first time, and this is a unique occasion in terms of playing at ZSC [Zayed Sports City] in Abu Dhabi. We have to be positive about moving forwards."

Friday night's encounter at ZSC will not be short of ceremony, given that it is the first time the UAE will have played a Test on home soil.

However, the national team's players are quickly getting used to that. Saturday's match in Colombo was watched by Mahinda Rajapaksa, the country's president, as well as more than 4,000 others.

"Away from home, it is a good result from our point of view, because away points in any league are very valuable," Bremner said. "This is such a congested league, which makes every point very critical. We always wanted to get something out of it, but in the second game we have to be a wee bit greedier and say we want more.

"Kazakhstan did not get what we got at the weekend and they will be saying they can't come home empty handed. They will be trying anything they can do to get something out of the game."

Given the prevailing weather against Sri Lanka, the biggest challenge facing the UAE's players ahead of this weekend could be getting their new Gilbert playing kits dry in time for kick-off.

The monsoon conditions were so severe most of pitch markings had been washed away by half time.

It was not just the two Emirati players in the UAE's 22-man squad, Mohanned Shaker and Ali Mohammed, to whom the conditions seemed alien.

"It was shocking weather," said Dan Boatwright, the Dubai Hurricanes prop who splashed down to score the UAE's first international try. "We looked at the forecast before we went and expected heavy rain, but when we actually turned up there it was fantastically hot and very humid, and didn't look like it was going to rain at all. I have played in similar conditions [in the UK] plenty of times myself, but not over the past three years living in Dubai.

"I don't think I have even played in rainy conditions at all since I have been here, so it felt like it was back to the good old days."

Mick Cox-Hill, the UAE captain, believes his side would have been three tries better than Sri Lanka in normal conditions.

"I brought the boys in behind the posts [after Sri Lanka went 8-0 up] and said, 'Look, we are 21 points better than this side if we stick to our game plan, let's do it and the score will come good'," he said.

"We put some phases of play together, and got two tries and a penalty to go 13-8 up, but credit to Sri Lanka, they took their chances as well.

"We have a lot of work to put in before we play Kazakhstan."