The UAE may only just be dipping their toe into the water of IRB full membership but more than one of the sides they are hosting at this week’s Emirates Airline Cup of Nations are hoping to use their involvement as a springboard to World Cup qualification.
Both Belgium – who the hosts face today – and Zimbabwe have realistic chances of sealing one of the remaining spots from Europe and Africa respectively, while Hong Kong have not ruled out the opportunity of entering the repechage should Japan seal Asia’s place as expected.
“A key factor to success is winning. We never underestimate the adversary. In this way we believe that we can succeed in the coming two years [to gain] access to the RWC,” Jan Coupe, President of the Belgian Rugby Federation, said. “We will use every means at our disposal to achieve that goal.”
Bongai Zamchiya, chairman of the Zimbabwe Sables committee which oversees 15-a-side rugby in the African country, meanwhile, is even more confident.
“We have the players and the commitment to achieve this,” he said. “We have been to two World Cups in the past – 1987 by invitation and 1991 as qualifiers. As long we can fund the necessary programmes, we strongly believe that the Green and White jersey will grace the RWC once again.”
Zimbabwe kick-off their campaign against Hong Kong in the evening game at 7he Sevens, and although ranked two places below the defending champions, they have loftier ambitions. H
aving finished third in last season’s Asian 5 Nations, which included a 67-0 defeat to Japan along the way it is not surprising that Hong Kong coach Dai Rees thinks their best chance of making the World Cup would come via a play-off.
“Realistically, Japan stand alone in Asian due to their player base and professional league structure,” he admitted. “Our aim will be to secure a top two spot and perhaps HK’s first venture into the RWC repechage.”
Neither Zimbabwe nor Belgium have been able to bring their full squads to Dubai. The African nation are missing several players taking part in this weekend’s Nelson Mandela Bay Sevens in South Africa, while Black Devils scrum-half Julien Berger has not been released by his French club side, La Rochelle.
However, it is clear Duncan Hall and his UAE side will have their work cut out over the next six days, especially given the short turnaround from the local sevens season.
Hall has named a 23-man squad which contains 13 new caps, including Dubai Hurricanes fly-half James Ham and exciting Emirati winger Mohammed Abbas. Although clearly inexperienced at this level, the new boys will be unburdened by the baggage of the inaugural Cup of Nations 12 months ago in which the UAE suffered heavy defeats to Hong Kong, Brazil and Kenya.
It would have been easy for the UAE Rugby Federation (UAERF) to select the opposition for this year’s event with that experience in mind, but instead they have gone with countries ranked higher, in Belgium and Zimbabwe.
Chief executive Ian Bremner believes exposure to such countries is vital if the UAE are going to improve their own standards. “The opposition has been chosen in tandem with IRB as target countries,” he revealed.
“What we’ve got to do is step up to the standard instead of picking lower opposition. We’re exposing guys to as high a standard as we can, but at the same you hope some of that rubs off.”
GUIDE TO THE SIDES AT 7HE SEVENS
Belgium
World Ranking: 23
Coach: Richard McClintock
Captain: Andrew Neill
Expectations: FBRB President Jan Coupe: “It is part of sustained and increased investment in our national team ‘The Black Devils’. We are expecting a good performance for the team and hereby achieve one of our key aims of have a winning team in the future European Championship.”
Hong Kong
World Ranking: 28
Coach: Dai Rees
Captain: Tom McColl
Expectations: Rees said: “Both new teams have recently had international tournaments and will be better prepared than last year’s team. Both ourselves and UAE will be playing our first games since A5N 2012 and therefore we expect the competition to be stronger and very difficult to defend our title.”
UAE
World Ranking: N/A
Coach: Duncan Hall
Captain: Renier Els
Expectations: Hall said: “We have the experience of some old heads, which gives invaluable knowledge closer in the game, combined with the energy of the younger players. We have set a number of goals for the opening game and achieving these is our priority. I just want to see three good performances.”
Zimbabwe
World Ranking: 30
Coach: Brendon Dawson
Captain: Costa Dinha
Expectations: Bongai Zamchiya, chairman of the Zimbabwe Sables committee: “We are building towards RWC 2015 qualification and it is critical that we have a pool of key players. This tournament will allow our coaches to assess some new caps and allow our players to test themselves at a higher level.”
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