Family bragging rights will also be on offer when Canes head coach James Ham welcomes older brother Tom’s Bahrain to The Sevens, with both teams looking to build on encouraging starts to the competition.
Canes opened their campaign with a 55-5 win against Muscat two weeks ago and pushed rampant Doha to the limit last week before eventually falling to a 47-36 defeat.
“Friday will be an interesting one, especially as my brother is the Bahrain coach, so this game was always going to be fun,” said Canes’ Ham. “We know Bahrain will travel strong and know their strengths and where we should capitalise.
“They have proven a top end team so far but I certainly don’t think it will be easy for them to come away with anything this weekend.”
Ham has a few players set to return although he is reluctant to change a team that performed so admirably in Qatar.
“It will be hard to break into last weekend’s teams after the efforts that went in there,” he said. “We have the players and structures in place in attack and defence to control any game to our strengths. I’m hoping where we came up a little short on decisions in Doha, we have gained confidence in individual and teammates’ abilities to control specific areas of the game.”
Bahrain, meanwhile, have been the surprise package of the tournament so far. Having struggled to last place in the Gulf Top Six last season, they stormed to a shock 13-12 win at Abu Dhabi Saracens and bounced back from a second week defeat to Dubai Exiles to beat Jebel Ali Dragons 37-17 last Friday.
Bahrain player-coach’s is rightly delighted with his side’s transformation in the last 12 months.
‘We’re generally confident about how we are playing at the moment,” said the elder Ham. “Things are being put in place in training and that’s showing on the field. We’re looking to build on the good start to the season. We had a good win last week versus Dragons and dominated what could have been a dangerous opponent. We let up a bit in the second half, which allowed them to show their quality and start a comeback, but we managed to regroup.”
Ham described the family reunion as more of a feud, adding: “It’s a grudge match for me as my brother is coaching the other side so it would be nice to put up a win,” he said. “Hurricanes are always a quality side, especially at home, so we will need to ensure we keep the pressure on for the whole 80 minutes if we are going to win it.”
