Al Ain Amblers refuse to be UAE Premiership’s whipping boys

Matt Jones - Editor 08:16 04/08/2015
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  • The Amblers players are put through their paces.

    Al Ain Amblers chairman Sean Emmett insists the club are not daunted about the prospect of meeting the UAE’s finest in the Premiership next season.

    Emmett is not about to draw attention to himself or the club by wildly predicting the Garden City club will flourish among the elite, however he also claims his club will be nobody’s whipping boys. 

    Contrary to the name on the badge, Amblers roared mercilessly into the Premiership, taking the UAE Conference by storm. They went the entire 2014/15 campaign unbeaten, winning 16 straight games, capping a memorable season with a 35-15 win in the UAE Conference Cup final against Jebel Ali Dragons 2nds.

    Victory and promotion was all the more sweeter for the club, having tasted defeat in successive finals in 2013 and 2014.

    Emmett is aware Amblers will not receive the freedom to play their expansive, attacking game that saw them promoted. But he is looking forward to the challenge they face.

    “We’re not daunted by the new season, the players are really looking forward to it,” Emmett said.

    “We’re looking forward to competing with the other teams and we’re hoping for a handful of victories and consolidating our position as a Premiership team.

    “There’ll be no crazy nonsense like me saying we’ll win all the trophies or go the season unbeaten, but we don’t want to be whipping boys either. We have no intention of doing that – we want to play some good, tough rugby.”

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    The Premiership will be new territory for Al Ain and former second team captain Emmett is also heading a raft of changes off the field at the club.

    The 43-year-old has replaced Andre Fourie as chairman, with only new director of rugby Rocco De Bruyn remaining from last season’s committee.

    Amblers have a new first team coach in Andrew Rouvi, who replaces interim coach Keleto Dyer and last season’s promotion-winning head coach Peter Aki. Emmett sang the praises of Rouvi, who he believes will relish the strategic challenges the Premiership and its teams will pose to Amblers.

    “Peter said before last season that he wanted to move on so we knew that,” said Emmett.

    “We started to look for a new coach early and Andrew, who was coach of the seconds, expressed a desire to move up. He was a strong contender. He is a great people manager, he plans meticulously for both training and games.

    “Last season we were able to relax a bit and throw the ball around, so I know Andrew is looking forward to building strategies.”

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