Dubai: UAE Rugby Association team manager Wayne Marsters is said to be ‘closing in' on the selection of his final squad of 12 for the Dubai Sevens after third and eighth place finishes for his expatriate and national sides in the Goa Sevens on Sunday.
The UAE's expatriates finished third in Goa, behind winners Hong Kong and runners-up China. Meanwhile the UAE Shaheen side, made up entirely of Emirati talent, finished eighth in their first ever taste of regional exposure.
Beating Singapore 14-7, Iran 42-5 and losing to Hong Kong 22-7 in the pool stages, the UAE's first team made up of expatriates, six of whom were debutants, beat India 29-12 in the quarters before losing to China 38-0 in the semis.
In the third-place play-off, the UAE realised their pre-tournament aims with a 19-12 victory over Kazakhstan. That performance made up for earlier disappointments in the three-leg Asian Rugby Sevens Series, where they finished ninth in Shanghai and seventh in Borneo.
In the other pool, UAE Shaheen battled hard despite losses to China 50-0, Kazakhstan 46-0 and India 38-12. They lost their quarter-final 47-0 to Hong Kong and their semi with Iran 33-5. Qualifying for the bowl competition, UAE Shaheen lost to India 31-0, ending eighth out of eight teams.
The outright final of the event was won by Hong Kong, who beat China 43-0.
The UAE RA will now merge top talent from both local and expatriate squads to build the best team for their first participation as a nation in the Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens between December 1 and 3.
Marsters said: "The squad is starting to take shape more since Goa. I'm a lot closer to finalising my final 12 for Dubai. But I'm no clearer as to how many Emirati players will be involved.
"Goa was a valuable development exercise for the UAE to see where we're at regionally and what more needs to be done to bridge the gap with other nations.
"We still have half a dozen training sessions between now and the Dubai Sevens, where we target individual performance goals over outcome."
