Thornton wins survival of the fittest

The Dubai Dragons coach, who has a reputation for being a hard tasmaster, leads by example by subjecting himself to a gruelling schedule.

DUBAI // Shane Thornton, the Arabian Gulf sevens coach, is planning a relatively sedate build-up to his outing with Dubai Dragons this afternoon, after pushing the idea of a pre-game warm-up to extremes in recent times. The New Zealander earned himself a reputation as a hard taskmaster with the fitness drills he put his players through in the lead up to last month's Dubai Rugby Sevens.

So severe was he the squad even kept a sick tally, with the player who vomited the most times winning some new sports gear. Yet Thornton is evidently only too happy to practise what he preaches. Last Friday he was at the start line at 6.45am for the Dubai 10km on marathon morning, before playing 80 minutes in the Dragons' Gulf Cup defeat in Abu Dhabi in the afternoon. Just to make sure he was getting his fitness fill, he joined in a game of touch rugby at training with the Toa Dubai women's side, for whom his wife, Jessica, plays, in between finishing the race and travelling to Al Ghazal.

"That is the first time in my life I've done that," he said. "I ran 10km before we played in Abu Dhabi. "It was a pretty big warm-up in the morning, but I was more tired the following day, not actually on the day of the game." Thornton's Dragons side will seek to revive their stalled campaign against city rivals Dubai Hurricanes at The Sevens this afternoon. A string of defeats has severely hindered their aspirations of adding to their Dubai Sevens crown, but Thornton suggested there were signs of a return to their best during the cup loss in Abu Dhabi.

"We played really well then fell off the pace in the last 10 minutes and let a couple of tries in," he added. "That let Abu Dhabi through for the win and that is something we have to work on this week against the Hurricanes. We try to open it up and have fun out there." @Email:[e-mail]