DUBAI // Riyadh's inside-centre obviously did not get the memo. "What is the point of travelling all the way from Riyadh if we are going to tackle like this?" he raged at his shell-shocked colleagues, after Toa Dubai rumbled over for their umpteenth try on Thursday night.
Here is a tip: get the team bus and park it in front of the try-line. It might have plugged some of the leaks, but even then the tourists would have struggled to halt the onslaught.
Resistance against the red tide was futile. When the Sri Lankan referee eventually took mercy on Riyadh, the Gulf's newest club had set the seal on an 88-0 victory. Not bad for their first attempt.
"The best thing we can take out of the game is that it was confidence building for the young guys," said Toa's captain, John Mamea-Wilson.
"We have told them to enjoy it, but not to think they are now any better than they were at training. They were rubbish at training."
There was a sense of foreboding among the visiting ranks even before the start, when their waif-like winger glanced across the field to see the colossal Trevor Leota, who was once labelled the world's best hooker, gamely leading Toa's energetic warm-up.
"Don't worry about them, just concentrate our game," he was advised by one of his more experienced teammates. Easier said than done when the opposition look like a collection of Easter Island statues, just a little bit harder.
For the most part, Leota was able to stroll through the game, busying himself instead with giving tips to some of the emerging Arab players who were also part of the Toa pack.
It is what he is paid to do, after all. Leota has been recruited as the scrum coach at the Elite Sporting Academy, based at nearby Repton School, which supplies a number of young players to the Toa side.
Only once did Leota really get the chance to stretch his legs, when Riyadh gave a demonstration in precisely what not to do from a restart.
The kick was hoisted straight into the arms of the on-rushing colossus, and his would-be tacklers, who had been reticent at best until then, were suddenly non-existent.
He passed the ball on out of pity rather than necessity, and Toa had another try under the posts, merely seconds after their previous score.
Significantly, Toa pitched a group of Emirati players into 15-man action for the first time.
The pack, for instance, pitted the promising young Emirati prop Dumble Mohammad Abdullah alongside a Lebanese expatriate, Sol Mokdad, with Leota at hooker.
The UAE nationals revelled in the experience with Walid Salm, a 23-year-old convert from football, and Mohammad Shakar both touching down tries.
"From the first minute I was very nervous", said Shakar after his try-scoring introduction to the 15-a-side game.
"Trevor was encouraging us from the start, telling us not to be nervous, to enjoy the game and play it from our hearts.
"I actually thought it would be far more difficult playing this game than sevens, but with all the experienced players around us it made it easy.
"When I scored my try in the corner in the second-half I thought, 'Finally, I've done it'.
"We have been playing sevens and 10s for quite a while now, and we all still want to do that as well. Perhaps now we will start to concentrate on 15s."
pradley@thenational.ae
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What: 11th edition of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship
When: December 27-29, 2018
Confirmed: men: Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Kevin Anderson, Dominic Thiem, Hyeon Chung, Karen Khachanov; women: Venus Williams
Tickets: www.ticketmaster.ae, Virgin megastores or call 800 86 823
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Install an air filter in your home.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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