DUBAI // An entire squad of Emirati rugby players will get their first taste of competitive, 15-a-side rugby when they start their Community League campaign on Friday.
The UAE Shaheen development side will face Jebel Ali Dragons’ third team in the new, third-tier domestic competition, at The Sevens, Dubai.
For many of them, it is little more than a week since they picked up a rugby ball for the first time.
All the novice side have to go on in terms of rugby experience is a defeat in a friendly game against Arabian Knights last weekend.
Apollo Perelini, the Shaheen coach, realises his side will have to learn quickly, but he is optimistic they are capable of it, given how they performed in defeat to the Knights.
“Give me three weeks with them and the scoreline could have been reversed,” Perelini said.
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If any of the rookie Emiratis are in need of a little inspiration, and confirmation that it can be done, they only need glance across the fields at The Sevens.
Shaheen kick off at the same time as Abu Dhabi Saracens line up for their Champions League consolation match against Olymp, the 2014 champions of Kazkahstan. Hassan Al Noobi and Mohammed Hassan, two of the leading Emirati rugby players, are now part of the first-team squad at Saracens.
If they do manage to hold down a place at a club who are officially the top side in the Middle East, they will be the first Emiratis to do so at Premiership level.
UAE nationals who do show talent from the Shaheen programme will be encouraged to take up places at established clubs, if they are offered the chance.
“The senior Emirati players will still be encouraged to go to their clubs,” said Mohammed Shaker, the UAE Rugby Federation board member.
“For new, young boys, who want to learn about rugby, to get experience of the game, Shaheen is the best place for the boys. It is home for them.”
Perelini is aware that having his best players cherry-picked by other clubs will hinder Shaheen’s chances of winning matches, but he says that is part of the design.
“The whole point of the programme is to develop a 15s side for local players, not just sevens, to develop a pathway that will help them progress on to international rugby,” said the former Samoa international. “It is a massive commendation for those guys to go up to Saracens.
“That is the whole process. If that can happen more, I think we will see a big push for more locals and they will feel more accommodated and better about being part of the club scene.
“I would like a conveyor belt of boys and men coming through the Shaheen club, where they can up-skill then move on.
“That is the whole point of the Shaheen development pathway.”
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