If the best way to market a sport is to enlist help from icons of the game, then rugby sevens has got it all figured out.
At some neatly tendered football pitches at Rashid School for Boys in Nad Al Sheba on Tuesday, Emirati schoolboys were given a taster lesson by the two greats of sevens.
Ben Gollings has scored more points on the world sevens series than any other player.
His partner – both in business and the coaching clinic – was Waisale Serevi, the man whose records he broke, but who is still regarded as the pre-eminent figure in the history of the abridged format.
As well as the credentials, they have personality, to boot. So if anyone was going to get the message across to a doubting, football-obsessed public, it was these two.
Serevi tried his best.
As the primary schoolboys jostled to get into the frame for a group photo celebrating the occasion, he had a different slant on: Say cheese. First time round, they had to say, Rashid School.
They roared it.
After the second time, he coaxed them to say the sponsors’ name.
That was met with a rapturous response, too.
The third time?
On the count of three, everyone shout “rugby”. One, two, three ... “Umm, American football? Football?”
This has always been a hard sell, but the evidence has been growing lately that rugby is starting to get some traction in the indigenous community.
The first qualified Emirati rugby coach, Yousef Shaker, was on hand to help, and Gollings, who has been a regular fixture at the Dubai Sevens for a decade, reckons the signs of progress are obvious.
“Over the years, we have helped out at schools where we can when we have been at the Sevens, but being back here now, it has been brilliant to see the growth,” said the former England captain.
“It is great to see the excitement from Emirati kids for rugby, because obviously football dominates.
“The skills they have are fantastic. It is just a case of nurturing them and building on them further down the line.”
For the first time, Emirati rugby players will be guaranteed the chance to play in a Saturday final in front of 45,000 people at the Dubai Sevens on National Day weekend.
The UAE Schools competition will culminate in a Pitch 1 final for the first time, and Serevi thinks that will help the sport’s development.
“When I started coming here all those years ago, it was only the expats who were playing rugby, and their sons,” said the former Fiji captain.
“At the moment, thanks to the support of the sponsors, these kids are being helped to get to the elite level.
“The stats say there are more than 3,000 Emiratis playing rugby, and more than 20 schools.
“The Emirati schools final will be played in the main stadium and that is really a good idea. That is what rugby is all about.
“We are trying to grow the game and get kids into rugby. A lot of kids, once they go out of here, have rugby in mind and want to play rugby.”
pradley@thenational.ae
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