Gulf region game growing

Chris Bath and Sandy Naylor from the The Gulf Rugby Paper, based in Dubai, bring us up to speed with the growth of women's rugby in the Gulf.

Published by Alison Donnelly, August 27th, 2015

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Gulf region game growing

When someone flies over the desert sands of the Middle East, it is often a raised eyebrow that greets the question, do you play rugby or do you want to join our team?

Yet men’s rugby at least has been going strong in the Arabian Gulf for more than 45 years, longer in fact than the countries in which they are played in.

The women’s game took a little longer to establish, as we have seen in all rugby playing regions of the world, but it didn’t mean that odd pockets were not involved in the occasional match.

Under the old Arabian Gulf Union, which has now been disbanded, there was a women’s team that played at both the Dubai and Hong Kong sevens and there was a small but determined women’s competition starting to form in the Gulf region.

Now almost 10 years on and the AGRFU has given way to Unions of individual countries; and as the growth of rugby in general in the region has grown, the women’s game has doubly so.

The UAE is the biggest playing Union in the region and with 6 clubs, most with two teams; there is plenty of competition on the annual seven’s series. This is a cross border tournament too, with teams from Kuwait, Qatar and an occasionally a Bahrain side joining the League.

Top level teams are also benefiting from the modern expansion of cities like Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi, where the lure of expatriate work has brought the likes of Rhian Adams, Fiona Reidy and Alex Cook, who all played representative rugby for Wales, Ireland and England respectively and has also helped developed the talents of players like Holly Myers, who plays at Richmond rugby club as well as representing England at rugby league.

Last season the Gulf teams grouped together to form a 15’s tournament, with three regional sides, the idea was driven by the Gulf women’s driving force, Canadian Jenny Matheson and will be repeated this season after a shortened seven’s series.

With over 30 players turning up for training at Doha rugby club and nearly 30 at the newly formed Dubai Sharks team, women’s rugby is certainly in rude health. The series starts in October and ends in March after 7 tournaments in 3 countries and will be closely fought from start to finish.

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