Dubai: Apollo Perelini, new coach of the UAE rugby development team, will hone his all-Emirati squad by entering them in the local league’s third tier this season.
The Dubai Airport-sponsored Shaheen side, selected from the best players in the HSBC Player Pathway Programme, will play fortnightly in the community league from September to get them familiar with the 15s format. From there, the best players will be singled out for promotion to first division clubs and Roelof Kotze’s Emirates Airline-backed UAE senior team.
“I’m looking to improve skills, knowledge and educate indigenous players to get them to buy into the fundamentals of rugby,” the New Zealand-born Samoan former dual-code player told Gulf News. “Hopefully then, they will do well enough to warrant UAE national team selection.”
With Rugby Sevens reintroduced to the Olympics next year after a 92-year hiatus, the UAE Rugby Federation (UAE RF) is on a drive to recruit more local players because only passport-holders will be eligible for such competitions. But Perelini, 45, who represented Samoa at both the rugby union and rugby league World Cups in 1991 and 1995 respectively, said it wasn’t a case of phasing out expatriates.
“We will require expatriates to assist and it will continue to be that way for a long time yet,” he said. “You’ve got to remember this is an expatriate’s game, the locals are learning. They are not yet passionate about rugby, but it’s important for us to get them passionate, and the only way to do that is to get them to play and understand the technicalities of the game.
“This is also a very transient place. Expatriates will come and go, but locals will always be here, as this is their country. So we need to develop homegrown talent. Locals are the mainstay of UAE rugby, so the pathway and foundations need to be set.”
Perelini, who played union club rugby with Auckland’s North Harbour before turning to rugby league with England’s St. Helens and Sale Sharks, said he took inspiration from his native New Zealand when it came to spreading the game.
“If you look at New Zealand, rugby used to be the sport of the European immigrant population, but over the last 50 years we’ve seen its integration among the native Polynesian population. The All Blacks are now half Polynesian half European. It’s not about phasing anyone out but getting more people playing in the years to come.
“It’s a big challenge, but I find it exciting not daunting, because Emirati players remind me so much of the Pacific islanders. If you give them a ball they want to run and smash through things, if you channel that you could have some really exciting locals in the future.”
