Dubai: UAE Rugby now has more time to prepare for their Olympic pre-qualifiers after the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) announced a change in date and format this week.
The UAE were due to take part in two Olympic pre-qualifying events for developing unions in Al Ain on October 31-November 1 and in Chennai, India, on November 29-30.
The team with the highest points over the two weekends was due to qualify for the core 12 Asian qualifiers next year. The top team from that core 12 qualifies for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, while second, third and fourth-placed sides enter a cross-confederation playoff.
However, ARFU have announced changes to the pre-qualifying format. The Al Ain tournament will still be held on October 31 to November 1, but it will now act as a seeding competition for Chennai, which will now be moved to February or March of 2015. This change is in order to satisfy International Olympic Committee (IOC) requirements, which stipulate qualifiers should be held the year before the finals.
Qais Al Dhalai, the secretary general of the UAE Rugby Federation, said the decision would help the UAE. “It gives all developing unions more time to prepare,” he said. “Now we have nearly six months as opposed to just two. This will be to our advantage. It’s a good delay and to our benefit, so we will see what happens.
“Al Ain is still our main priority because we want to be well seeded in order to face a weaker team first in Chennai.
“To win the final 12 and get into the Olympics is not a priority, as there is only one slot and three play-off places. But we are looking to be in the final 12 core teams in qualification, we want to be in the mix.
“As a team we are only two-years-old, so to be among the best 12 sides in Asia would be a big milestone for us.”
Doubts had been raised about the UAE’s ability to qualify to the final 12 after they finished 12th out of 12-teams in the first two rounds of the Asian Sevens Series in Hong Kong and Malaysia, recently. However, with the re-arrangement of pre-qualifiers, the UAE have been handed vital time to improve.
