Roll of honour
Who has won what so far in the West Asia Premiership season?
Western Clubs Champions League - Winners: Abu Dhabi Harlequins; Runners up: Bahrain
Dubai Rugby Sevens - Winners: Dubai Exiles; Runners up: Jebel Ali Dragons
West Asia Premiership - Winners: Jebel Ali Dragons; Runners up: Abu Dhabi Harlequins
UAE Premiership Cup - Winners: Abu Dhabi Harlequins; Runners up: Dubai Exiles
West Asia Cup - Winners: Bahrain; Runners up: Dubai Exiles
West Asia Trophy - Winners: Dubai Hurricanes; Runners up: DSC Eagles
Final West Asia Premiership standings - 1. Jebel Ali Dragons; 2. Abu Dhabi Harlequins; 3. Bahrain; 4. Dubai Exiles; 5. Dubai Hurricanes; 6. DSC Eagles; 7. Abu Dhabi Saracens
Fixture (UAE Premiership final) - Friday, April 13, Al Ain – Dubai Exiles v Abu Dhabi Harlequins
The vast majority of rugby players in the region have made their final tackle and kicked their last ball of the 2017/18 season. With just UAE finals day on April 13, still to play, we assess how the region’s top sides fared over the past six months.
Abu Dhabi Harlequins
Verdict: Commendable defence of all their titles, given the absence list
The capital's most established club could yet end the campaign with more trophies than anyone else. They won the curtain-raising Champions League with a win over Bahrain and a draw in Kandy.
They beat Dubai Exiles to claim the pilot edition of the UAE Premiership Cup. Those two sides will be reacquainted in the UAE Premiership final in two weekends’ time, too.
It might be some way short of the “famous five” trophy haul their all-conquering side managed last term. But then, so few of that team have featured this season, given the unwelcome mix of long-term injuries, as well as players departing the region.
It is remarkable they have managed to remain competitive at all, let alone kept adding trophies.
Abu Dhabi Saracens
Verdict: Attendance must improve
Most things that could go wrong, did go wrong for Saracens this season. No other club had to deal with having their home ground taken away from them.
The capital’s youngest club started the season homeless. Although they eventually got Al Ghazal back, the lost months destabilised the club alarmingly.
A number of leading players left before the season even started, and then their coach went, too. They forfeited home and away Premiership matches against Exiles, on their way to a last-place finish in the West Asia Premiership.
And yet they are committed to battling on. “My aim is to get this club back to being one of the elite clubs in the UAE, and I think we can do that,” Jacob Basson, the chairman, said in January.
Bahrain
Verdict: Popular return to past glories in the cup may be the start of something big
It shows the high regard in which Bahrain are held in Gulf rugby that their West Asia Cup final win on Friday was universally well received – even by their opponents.
“Worthy winners” and “good rugby people” was how Mike Wolff, chairman of Dubai Exiles, described them.
Bahrain may be a huge club, with home support that is the envy of everyone else in the region. But winning titles in never easy.
While the rest of the league had to fly once – or twice, in Exiles’ case – Bahrain had eight overseas tours in their Premiership and then cup campaign.
“For us, the main aim was to win the league,” Bahrain captain Lindsey Gibson said. “That slipped away from us, but to win the cup was massive for us.
“It sounds silly, but the travelling doesn’t actually bother us too much because we are so used to it.”
Dubai Exiles
Verdict: Not quite at their 2016 best, but still some notable victories to celebrate
It was a marker of how closely fought the West Asia Premiership was that Exiles finished fourth out of seven in that competition – yet somehow still topped the UAE Premiership on the count-back of matches between sides from the Emirates.
Their campaign has already been a qualified success, having won back the Dubai Rugby Sevens title for the first time in a decade in December, as well as finishing runners up in the UAE Premiership Cup and West Asia Cup.
If they could overcome their regular combatants from Harlequins on finals day on April 13, that would be the gloss on a fine season.
Dubai Hurricanes
Verdict: West Asia Trophy win did little to mask their frustrations
As one of the region’s largest clubs, another season outside of the running for top honours grated.
Coach Mike Wernham is already planning the route to the top next season, but acknowledges it will not be easy.
"I read things in the press, people [from other clubs] coming out saying, 'We're not paying our players,' and it makes me laugh," Wernham said, after Hurricanes won the West Asia Trophy on Friday.
“We are a non-paying club. I am super competitive. My coaching team are super competitive, but we have to be realistic about what we can and can’t do. I’m not going to ask people to miss work to come and play rugby.
“This isn’t their priority. As a Hurricanes family, it is always: family first, job second, rugby third. Maybe we will be in the same place next year, fingers crossed it won’t, but we always have room for new players.”
Dubai Sports City Eagles
Verdict: Other than a few substantial blowouts, the new boys have fitted in relatively well
Eagles will have set off on their goodwill tour of Sri Lanka this week content that their first season as a competitive entity was passable, at the very least.
Their stated aim was one win. They got that early, and by the end of the season, they were in contention in the West Asia Trophy final, before fading in the last 20 minutes of the final against Hurricanes.
“We started pre-season, then went for a month with just 12 players,” said Josh Ives, the Eagles development manager.
“They pretty much all started the [Trophy final]. If we can do a pre-season with the 40 players we have now, increase the competition in the front-row, and get some more big ball-carriers for the back row, I think we will be there.”
Jebel Ali Dragons
Verdict: Mission accomplished as they reclaimed the big prize
Dragons started the campaign with the major target of reclaiming their status as the region’s leading side in the short-format.
A shock loss in the Dubai Rugby Sevens final to Exiles scotched that ambition – but they were able to offset that by winning the region’s leading competition, the West Asia Premiership, instead.
“You know when you see the fixtures schedule at the start of the season what is expected, what cups are in play, and what the leagues are,” Dragons captain Ross Samson said.
“We got to the final of the Sevens, and we were disappointed not to win. The next goal was to win the league, and we have done that.”
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.”
PRO BASH
Thursday’s fixtures
6pm: Hyderabad Nawabs v Pakhtoon Warriors
10pm: Lahore Sikandars v Pakhtoon Blasters
Teams
Chennai Knights, Lahore Sikandars, Pakhtoon Blasters, Abu Dhabi Stars, Abu Dhabi Dragons, Pakhtoon Warriors and Hyderabad Nawabs.
Squad rules
All teams consist of 15-player squads that include those contracted in the diamond (3), platinum (2) and gold (2) categories, plus eight free to sign team members.
Tournament rules
The matches are of 25 over-a-side with an 8-over power play in which only two fielders allowed outside the 30-yard circle. Teams play in a single round robin league followed by the semi-finals and final. The league toppers will feature in the semi-final eliminator.
Gulf Under 19s final
Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B
The specs: Volvo XC40
Price: base / as tested: Dh185,000
Engine: 2.0-litre, turbocharged in-line four-cylinder
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 250hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 350Nm @ 1,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 10.4L / 100km
The biog
Age: 59
From: Giza Governorate, Egypt
Family: A daughter, two sons and wife
Favourite tree: Ghaf
Runner up favourite tree: Frankincense
Favourite place on Sir Bani Yas Island: “I love all of Sir Bani Yas. Every spot of Sir Bani Yas, I love it.”
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
Europe wide
Some of French groups are threatening Friday to continue their journey to Brussels, the capital of Belgium and the European Union, and to meet up with drivers from other countries on Monday.
Belgian authorities joined French police in banning the threatened blockade. A similar lorry cavalcade was planned for Friday in Vienna but cancelled after authorities prohibited it.
PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
'Munich: The Edge of War'
Director: Christian Schwochow
Starring: George MacKay, Jannis Niewohner, Jeremy Irons
Rating: 3/5
SWEET%20TOOTH
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Russia's Muslim Heartlands
Dominic Rubin, Oxford
Roll of honour
Who has won what so far in the West Asia Premiership season?
Western Clubs Champions League - Winners: Abu Dhabi Harlequins; Runners up: Bahrain
Dubai Rugby Sevens - Winners: Dubai Exiles; Runners up: Jebel Ali Dragons
West Asia Premiership - Winners: Jebel Ali Dragons; Runners up: Abu Dhabi Harlequins
UAE Premiership Cup - Winners: Abu Dhabi Harlequins; Runners up: Dubai Exiles
West Asia Cup - Winners: Bahrain; Runners up: Dubai Exiles
West Asia Trophy - Winners: Dubai Hurricanes; Runners up: DSC Eagles
Final West Asia Premiership standings - 1. Jebel Ali Dragons; 2. Abu Dhabi Harlequins; 3. Bahrain; 4. Dubai Exiles; 5. Dubai Hurricanes; 6. DSC Eagles; 7. Abu Dhabi Saracens
Fixture (UAE Premiership final) - Friday, April 13, Al Ain – Dubai Exiles v Abu Dhabi Harlequins
