Al Ain Amblers duo Devante Steele and Tomasi Tirikula believe that you write off Emirati rugby players at your peril.
Despite the assumption many might make that Emiratis and rugby do not mix, the American and Fijian teenagers hoping to make the UAE Under-20 squad for the two legs of the Asian RFU Under-20 7s this month have more of an insight into the deceptively deep well of talent among Emirati rugby circles.
Amblers are renowned as a club rich in Fijian flair, but Steele and Tirikula insist there is an increasingly heavy Emirati influence in the Garden City.
Both have been part of Roelof Kotze’s U-20s training camp for the last few weeks, where there has been a large Al Ain contingent.
The expats have been joined by some familiar faces and insist their Arabic club mates are nowhere near as helpless as the re-introduction of expats to the national sevens set-up would have you believe.
American centre Steele said he is excited about the prospect of being selectedfor the Malaysia and Hong Kong legs of the Asian 7s being played on August 15-16 and 21-22 respectively.
“Most of the boys I know because they’re from Al Ain. It’s familiar having some club-mates in the UAE set-up and I think it will improve the team,” said Steele, 18.
“We’re going to compete and the Emirati guys are not joking around, they’re serious players. They’re ready to play and I’m excited to see where it goes and what they do.”
Fijian hooker Tirikula, 17, is amazed by the progress his Emirati team-mates have made in the last two years, particularly the likes of Ebrahim Doraee, Khalid Al Junaibi, Younes Al Blooshi and Saif Al Shamsi.
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“It’s not a complete surprise to us. We’ve known about their talent for a while,” said Tirikula.
“When we first started with them at Al Ain they weren’t that experienced but they’ve caught up so much. They’ve only been taught for two years but play like they’ve played for five or six.”
The progress made, according to Tirikula, is down to the efforts of UAE Rugby Federation and Al Ain rugby development officer Sami Smara.
“They’ve been coached well by Sami, who went to Fiji and brought the Fijian skills here. The way he trains the local boys is basically the same as in Fiji,” he said.
