Abu Dhabi Harlequins seek new talent for upcoming season

Martyn Thomas 07:03 20/07/2014
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  • Be there: Fans can also come down to Zayed Sports City and show your support.

    Calling all rugby players, sportsmen and fitness fanatics in the capital – Abu Dhabi Harlequins need you.

    The Abu Dhabi rugby club begin their pre-season preparations to­morrow, July 21 and they are in the midst of a recruitment drive.

    Sessions will be held at Zayed Sports City on Mondays and Wednesdays, starting at 19:00, and are open to anyone who fancies coming over – whether that be to pack down in the front row or just work on their fitness.

    Initially, the focus of the train­ing will be on conditioning with knuckle push-up world record holder, Eva Clarke, running the rule over the squad.

    It is hoped around 50 or so people will turn out as Clarke puts them through their paces with a va­riety of exercises, including circuit, cross-training and lots of running.

    “It’s open for anyone, men and ladies, from 18 up,” Quins club cap­tain, Graham Murphy, said.

    “We want as many newcomers as possible. We get big numbers, espe­cially people who have just come to Abu Dhabi. We need more players coming into the seniors section.”

    Murphy added: “You get a lot of people who just like the pre-season as well. A lot of the gaelic football players, for example, who just want to give it a go and see what’s it like.

    “There have been gaelic players who have come down and played, and that’s brilliant.”

    While the training sessions are open to anyone and everyone who would want to come down, Murphy admits the club has a pressing need to find reinforcements in the front row.

    The Northern Irishman, and fellow UAE international, Chris Jones-Griffiths, are the senior squad’s only recognised props, with Quins tragically losing the services of Mike Ballard due to a serious spinal injury.

    “We’ve had a targeted recruit­ment drive this year where we haven’t before. We’ve targeted a few areas, because obviously there’s competition now and this is the time people come into the country generally,” Murphy added.

    “That (front row) would be our biggest weakness. There’s myself and one other prop who’ve been here maybe six, seven years and we’re the stalwarts. And then we lost Ballard, obviously.

    “Then a few of the other guys have gone on to the vets, a couple of the over-35 guys have been doubling up for the seconds and that hasn’t really been working. You just can’t rely on four or five people, so that is one of the areas we are looking at.”

    Having come up just short of Gulf domination over the past couple of seasons, losing out in the final of both the sevens and ARFU West Asia cup last term, Quins have got serious this summer.

    Partially spurred on by the suc­cess of Saracens across the city, the club are providing player-coach Jeremy Manning with a new coach­ing staff and for the first time in over a year the second XV will have a dedicated manager.

    “It’s probably kept us on our toes a bit whereas maybe we would have been a bit complacent before,” Murphy says of Saracens. “It’s not a bad thing, the more rugby players in Abu Dhabi the better.”

    If you want to swell the pool of players even further, then get down to Zayed Sports City this week.

    What: Abu Dhabi Harlequins pre-season training
    When: Every Monday and Wednesday at 19:00 from July 21
    Where: Zayed Sports City, Abu Dhabi

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