Dubai Exiles' Ed Armitage heads home but aims to return to Emirates to earn elusive UAE cap

Matt Jones - Editor 20:38 13/06/2017
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  • Ed Armitage is back home in the UK after four years in Dubai with Exiles

    Ed Armitage has just ended a four-year stay in the UAE but the now ex-Dubai Exiles scrum-half admits he has unfinished business with his adopted country and isn’t ruling out a return to earn a coveted national team cap in the future.

    The Yorkshireman returned home to the UK to follow a career in law earlier this month but with parents Neil and Jane living out here, Armitage revealed he is already setting his sights on a return one day to capitalise on the opportunity he agonisingly missed out on this year.

    The 24-year-old had been training with Apollo Perelini’s UAE squad since the start of the 2017 and would have been part of the touring party taking part in May’s Asia Rugby Championship in Malaysia.

    Unfortunately the tour clashed with Armitage’s final-year law exams at the Dubai-based Middlesex University – leaving him with a burning desire to return in the future.

    “(Playing for the UAE), it would have been the perfect way to finish it (my time out here),” admitted Armitage, whose cunning and quickness will surely be sorely missed by Exiles next season.

    “Unfortunately with my timetable, it didn’t happen. The gutting thing is I’d been involved in the training and heavily involved talking to Apollo and speaking to the other players. I was hoping the timetables wouldn’t clash but when they got released I was absolutely devastated.

    “Never say never though. If I have the opportunity to come back, there’s been vague talk of coming back out. It’s a shame but I might get another chance. Watch this space, I might still get my chance.”

    The UAE had been hoping to build on the good work of 2016 when they recorded huge wins against Thailand and Uzbekistan to storm to the ARC Division II title.

    Those victories built a historic three-game winning streak – the biggest in UAE history – but despite adding a raft of talent to this year’s roster; including Abu Dhabi Harlequins fly-half Luke Stevenson, as well as Armitage’s former skipper at club level, Glenn Moore, the UAE lost all three games.

    Armitage’s final exam was May 16, a day before Perelini’s men faced Sri Lanka, but he would likely have only been able to make it out to Ipoh for the UAE’s final game against the Philippines – billed as a relegation decider but eventually turned out to be a dead rubber – on May 20.

    Armitage added: “I was hoping they would finish prior to tour starting. Last exam was May 16, bang in the middle of tour. Even if there was a chance to fly out it would have been a dead rubber anyway, so unfortunately it didn’t come off.”
    Luckless Armitage also missed out on representing the UAE in sevens at the Asia Rugby Sevens Trophy in March after injuring his knee playing for Exiles against Abu Dhabi Saracens in their final UAE Premiership game of 2016/17 in March.

    “I was due to go to that but got injured in the last game of the season so it seems the UAE was not meant to be for me this year,” added the former Leeds Carnegie academy player.

    Not many of the current Exiles squad have first-hand experience of what it was like during the dark days before the double-winning West Asia Championship and UAE Premiership 2015/16 campaign.

    But Armitage recalls being one of only seven players who turned up to training when he arrived in the UAE on a permanent basis four years ago.

    “I was at the first session when there were seven of us there. It was dire,” admitted Ilkley native Armitage, who admitted he almost ended up joining Jebel Ali Dragons when he arrived to live here permanently having originally briefly spent time here after finishing secondary school and training with Exiles.

    His parents have lived in Duabi for almost eight years, dad Neil works for Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, and the former Sedbergh schoolboy was eventually persuaded to stay with Exiles by former coach Jan Venter.

    Armitage (botom row, 2nd r) celebrates with the double in 2015/16

    Armitage (bottom row, 2nd r) celebrates with the double in 2015/16

    “I’ve been coming to the UAE since since I was 17. The parents moved here when I was at school and I’d come and visit before moving out here after school.

    “That’s when I joined Exiles. I googled rugby out here and Exiles came up. I turned up at a training session and was playing v the (Dubai) Hurricanes the following weekend.”

    After Sedbergh, Armitage’s talent was recognised by Leeds, where he played until he was 20, which also showed Exiles he had pedigree.

    He added: “This was when Exiles were completely player led. Mike Coxhill was player-coach. When I left to go and work back in the UK was when it all fell apart and Jan Venter picked it up.

    “To be honest when I first came back I’d spoken to a few boys at Dragons and was quite close to signing with them at one point. I stuck it out, Jan said ‘we need you’.

    “We had two years playing in the Gulf Conference having not made the Gulf Top 6. We’d always win that and it was nice to win some silverware, but it’s not the best.

    “Jacques’ (Benade, Exiles head coach) arrival changed everything. He bought in some really good personnel and was the number one man.”

    After starring as Exiles, the UAE’s oldest rugby club, returned to prominence in 2015/16, it was hard for Armitage to see the club struggle badly last season in what was their 50th season in existence.

    Exiles finished fourth out of five teams in the UAE Premiership and fifth from seven in the West Asia Premiership as they won just nine of 20 games in 2016/17.

    “It was a shame we couldn’t keep it going this year,” Armitage said.

    “It hasn’t ended my time on a flat note but it’s disappointing because we showed so much potential the previous year with the double.

    “Jacques is looking heavily at recruitment. We lost a key number of boys last year, Rhinus (Bothma), Bradley (van Niekirk) and Phillip (Snyman).”

    And Armitage hopes the same drop won’t be experienced next year with the possibility of Moore not carrying on, while long-serving prop Krisitian Stinson and his wife are expecting their first child, so he might step away.

    “It will be interesting again to see what will happen this year. It’s the nature of the beast with rugby here. From initially turning up, there’s three players still here. Waves and waves of people come and go.

    “It’s inevitable you’ll lose bodies, but numbers at training we missed this year. It turned out on the pitch. Squad numbers this year are supposed to be upward of 40 so we’ll see.”

    Armitage will spend the summer in Leeds before heading to London to continue his law degree in September, with one eye definitely on a return to his adopted home.

    “The plan is definitely to come back with the opportunities that are here,” he said. “UK and Yorkshire are home but I would love to come back here and work.”

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