Roelof Kotze, the UAE performance manager, is hoping to avoid any club versus country disputes as he targets core status on the Asian Sevens Series.
The national team won the bowl competition on Sunday at the China Sevens in Qingdao, the opening leg of the three-tournament circuit.
Success in the third-tier bowl competition means the UAE are ninth in the standings after Round 1, with the top eight sides at the end of the series earning core status for next year.
With the domestic season not starting until the end of this month, none of the players had club obligations to concern them this weekend.
However, the Thailand and Sri Lanka legs of the series clash with the XVs season.
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Many of the UAE players, such as Jaen Botes, Chris Marshall and Justin Walsh, are key figures at their club’s first teams.
As such, they will have decisions to make the next time the national sevens squad is due to travel.
Kotze is hoping the lure of playing international representative rugby will outweigh the responsibility the players feel to their clubs.
“It is a completely new aspect to our team now, in that with two rounds of sevens taking place while the XVs league is on, there will be clashes,” Kotze said.
“It is still international rugby compared to club rugby. I am sure there will be some guys who will be slightly unhappy about that.
“But it is about players representing the country. The players will have to make gut decisions on that.”
After a predictably difficult opening day of the tournament in China, when they lost pool matches to Hong Kong and Philippines, the UAE had an uplifting second day.
They opened up with a 24-12 win over Chinese Taipei, then beat Singapore 15-7 in the bowl final.
It was a morale boost for a side that has rarely tasted any sort of success at this level of competition.
For the first time in two years, expatriate players were reintegrated into the set up, but every one of those seven players was making their debut in international sevens.
“We’re pretty happy as it’s the first time we have won games on the Asian Sevens circuit with the national side,” said Kotze, who has been in charge of the side since the start of 2014.
“Getting away with a trophy, albeit the bowl, it is still more than we have ever done before.
“I only realised from talking to the boys at the end of the first day that none of the expats have ever played international sevens.
“Although they might have played a lot of club rugby sevens tournaments, this was the first international one and that brings a little bit of added pressure.
“We have changed things around, the boys have been really good about it and they realise we are not that far off the teams above us. We can challenge for the top eight.”
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