Arabian Gulf officials are planning to lobby the International Rugby Board (IRB) to ensure that some of the region's leading young players are not lost to the international game when the sport is restructured in the region at the end of this year.
December's Dubai Rugby Sevens is the last in which the Gulf will compete, before the collective union is disbanded and the host nation berth is passed over to a newly formed UAE team from next year onwards.
As such, the tournament could be the last chance the likes of Taif al Delamie and James Love, two of the brightest talents in Gulf competition, get to play serious international rugby.
Al Delamie is an Omani national, while Love was brought up in Bahrain, meaning neither would qualify to play for the new Emirates team.
The UAE 15s team will take the place of the Gulf in the continent's top competition, the Asian Five Nations, next summer.
Its sevens side will also assume the host nation slot in the IRB competition in the annual Dubai Sevens.
The future of the other Gulf union nations is unclear, but none will be mobilised to play at that level for some time.
Bahrain, who will be one of only three Gulf nations, along with Qatar and the UAE to have their own national federations when the Gulf disbands, are likely to enter the Asian 15s competition hierarchy at the fourth tier. "We have to make a case for them [with the IRB]," Sean Hurley, the Gulf's sevens captain, said. "These are skilful, young, great players who could be lost to representative rugby in this part of the world.
"It is devastating for young guys like them. They are playing good rugby and it would be a shame to lose them.
"We have to think of where those guys will be in five years time in terms of their rugby knowledge, and how much they could pass on to emerging players here. Having a GCC national like Taif excluded would not be good at all."
The Gulf have been handed a sizeable task as they bid to sign off in style at the Dubai Sevens, after they were drawn in the same group as Samoa, the world series champions, for the competition.
They are also pitted against Wales, who won the Sevens World Cup in Dubai in March 2009, and Kenya, another leading sevens side.
"Every year we look at these groups and say it is never easy," Hurley said.
