UAE national rugby coach Roelof Kotze has labelled the sevens team’s experience at the Chennai 7s earlier this month as a “disaster” – but a necessary one.
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The UAE national team endured a difficult two days in the ARFU Asian Pre-Olympic qualifiers, winning only once and losing four as they finished fourth out of five teams competing.
Kotze, the UAE’s sevens and 15-a-side coach, described the performance as a blessing in disguise.
“It was a disaster in the sense that, yes, we didn’t qualify, but not in terms of what the future might hold,” said the South African. “It showed us our weaknesses but also what we need to look at. It focuses the mind and shows us our shortcomings so we can fix them.”
Kotze is determined to push on. He is busy putting a plan in motion for the continued development of the national sevens scene.
“We’re planning to hold an annual tournament around October or November like we did in Al Ain last year,” added Kotze.
Off to the final training prior to tomorrow’s Asian debut @benvanrooyen @DubaiAirports @emirates @onsidesportsdxb pic.twitter.com/Uuu9hKyNZ1
— UAE RUGBY FEDERATION (@uaerugby) March 6, 2015
“We don’t want to sit back and do nothing and just say ‘oh well, we haven’t qualified’. More regional tournaments will give our players more exposure and more experience.
“Maybe the Asian circuit isn’t the best setting for us, we need to play at our own level, we need to win so we can start building confidence. At the moment, we don’t seem to have that belief.”
Alongside the national team, the Shaheen side actually performed well, finishing third in the ARFU Development 7s tournament.
“The Shaheen are developing well. They are young guys who had never travelled before and they were exposed to something very different. We possibly found some fut-ure players for the national team,” said Kotze. “What we have got to do to capitalise on this is broaden our base because player availability is always a problem. We can’t always blame national service.”
