No cap on offer but UAE debut is still an honour for Abu Dhabi Harlequins' Craig Nutt

Matt Jones - Editor 21:50 25/04/2018
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  • UAE international Luke Stevenson is one of the new joint coaches at Quins.

    The country’s non-participation in the Asia Rugby Championship this year may have put a dampener on the end of the rugby season for many players, but Craig Nutt will still be honoured to pull on the green, white, red and black of the UAE on Friday.

    UAE Rugby chiefs announced in March that the nation would not be participating at this year’s Division I ARC, set to take place in the Philippines in June, meaning they would not be competing in the end of season internationals for the first time as a standalone nation since the 2011 Asian Five Nations.

    UAE players had competed internationally prior to that against other Asian countries as part of the Arabian Gulf team since the 2008 Asian Five Nations – but this year marks a break of not competing for the first time in a decade, and for as yet unexplained reasons.

    The UAE will instead play a one-off fixture against Gibraltar in Dubai on Friday. And despite the fact he will not earn an official cap for featuring, Abu Dhabi Harlequins prop Nutt cannot wait to make his debut for his adopted nation.

    “I’ve said all along it was in my sights, it was my target to get a UAE cap,” said Nutt, who arrived in the Emirates in the summer of 2014, winning the West Asia Championship with former club Abu Dhabi Saracens in his debut campaign.

    “Obviously this isn’t a capped game but it will hopefully put me in good stead for next year when the caps are available.

    “It has been a bit thrown together at the last minute, they told us about a week ago the game was going on and asked us to go training. I’m more than happy to go along.”

    Craig Nutt (l) is relishing his UAE debut.

    Craig Nutt (l) is relishing his UAE debut.

    The shock news not to take a team to Manila brought an abrupt end to several years of impressive progress under the tutelage of Apollo Perelini and Roelof Kotze before him.

    The UAE were set for another crack at Division I this year after finishing bottom last year following spirited defeats to Malaysia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines – but they were spared relegation, whetting the appetite for another promotion push for the ARC.

    It was a far cry from losing a relegation play-off to Singapore in April 2014 that saw the UAE drop down to Asia’s third tier. They almost bounced back at the first attempt in 2015 before trouncing Uzbekistan and Thailand in 2016 to earn promotion to Division I – there were even faint hopes a year ago that the UAE could qualify for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.

    Now, the future of the country is up in the air again with the decision not to travel east leaving everyone in limbo.

    But with a view to hopefully earning a maiden cap next year, Nutt insists he and the rest of this year’s talented squad are going to enjoy Friday’s game.

    “I’m looking forward to it and it’s going to be an honour to play for the UAE,” said the 33-year-old Welshman.

    “Training was really good (on Saturday). There’s a good calibre of player there so it was fun. The mood in the camp is good and it’s always good fun meeting up with boys you usually play against every week and seeing how they play and how we gel.”

    The UAE take on Gibraltar at Dubai Sports City on Friday evening, which will bring a brief but busy tour for the visitors to an end following four fixtures in the space of five days.

    Gibraltar lost 33-19 to Dubai Exiles on Monday night and then beat a Dubai Eagles Select XV 20-5 on Tuesday night. They play the UAE Barbarians on Thursday before the final fixture with the UAE.

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