Abu Dhabi French's big plans to beome UAE rugby powerhouse

Matt Jones - Editor 11:37 02/02/2016
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  • Allez Les Bleus: Abu Dhabi French are presented with the trophy for winning the U-16 B Bowl competition at the HSBC Rugby Festival Dubai by Waisale Serevi.

    When you think of rugby in Abu Dhabi, Harlequins and Saracens immediately spring to mind. Not too many people will have heard of a club called Abu Dhabi French.

    Ecole Francaise de Rugby Abu Dhabi as it is known in French though was formed more than a decade ago – actually making the club older than Saracens, which was only established in 2011.

    Abu Dhabi French was created by 15 pupils at Lycee Louis Massignon, one of two French language schools in the UAE capital, in 2004. The youngsters would gather to play rugby and soon Ecole Francaise de Rugby Abu Dhabi was born.

    Membership grew steadily, to 25 in the 2005/2006 season and 65 the season after.

    Although existing in the shadows of Harlequins and Saracens is not exactly ideal for growth, today the club has a thriving membership of over 200 players in age groups all the way from infants to Under-19s, and despite its relatively low-key stature, has grand plans to grow much bigger.

    The club’s triumph in the Bowl competition of the U-16 B section at the HSBC Rugby Festival Dubai last month was yet another small step for the development of the club.

    “It’s huge for our club,” said Abu Dhabi French chairman, Fabien Roveda.

    “For us it’s a really good experience. For our U-16’s it was the first time they have played this season because earlier in the season there was not enough of them to play.

    “It was their first tournament so it’s a great result. They enjoyed it and so did I.

    “It was the first ever tournament win for the U-16s but at the beginning of the season our U-13s and U-10s won at the Harlequins Junior Rugby Tournament. We also had two small titles in Al Ain so our reputation is growing.”

    French flair: The club’s U-9 team in full flow in Dubai last month.

    French flair: The club’s U-9 team in full flow in Dubai last month.

    To fulfil that ambition of growth, the club seems to be in safe hands with chairman and coach Roveda, rugby-mad since the age of five.

    He played to a fairly high standard in his native France with Nancy Seichamps in the French first division and grew up in the small south-western French village of Clairac, where he played rugby with a certain Phillipe Sella, who sits second on the all-time appearance list for Les Bleus with 111 caps.

    Roveda, 43, moved to Abu Dhabi two years ago and became involved with the club within a month of
    arriving.

    “We have not a lot. We have a website, 150 followers on Facebook and we hope to have a Twitter page soon but it is a club that is growing,” he added.
    “We are changing our rules inside the club and trying to become bigger. If we can have more people the job will be easier. The mind of the French people though is not like the English, for example, they don’t have the same experiences between family and rugby.

    “I hope we get through the problems we have here in Abu Dhabi, such as expats coming and going, and we can go higher.

    “We have stayed at 200 people for the last three or four years and I hope we will go to 300 or 400.

    “The community of French people in Abu Dhabi is perhaps not enough or big enough to have that but we will see.”

    Having been created by a small group of secondary school pupils and existing largely as a youth rugby club somewhat limits their exposure in a country where domestic rugby is dominated by senior tournaments like the UAE Premiership, West Asia Championship and Dubai Rugby Sevens and the region’s senior teams like
    Saracens, Quins and Dubai giants Exiles, Hurricanes, Wasps and Jebel Ali Dragons. But Roveda says there are plans to enter the vets section of the Dubai Sevens this year.

    “We would like to get the club on a par with Harlequins and Saracens, sure, and we are trying,” he said.

    “We will try next year to have a vets team at the sevens, we will try and find some players but most of them are young.”

    Another problem is that players have in the past left to join Quins, a superpower in terms of player base and prestige in the capital.

    “We have had players in the last two or three years choose to go to Harlequins because of the size of the club – Quins and Saracens are bigger than us,” said Roveda.

    “We have that problem, it’s normal, we see the same thing in France.

    “When we have a good player he goes to a bigger club, not only to win, but to have a better place in the game.

    “I understand that but I hope that with the evolution of the club we will have back our players because they are good. Also, if they play with Quins, it means we gave them good training.

    “It’s been a problem in the past but we hope that will change and I will do my best to arrange that. We are trying to modify our rules and modify the club to put it in the best condition possible. Allez Les Bleus. We are alive and we will do our best to remain so.”

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