UAE Rugby Federation’s performance manager Epeli Lagiloa is taking a full squad of Emirati players to Bangkok this weekend for the second leg of the Asian Sevens Series.

The UAE took 11 Emiratis plus Sri Lankan Imad Reya to the first leg in Kuala Lumpur a fortnight ago, but Lagiloa has shuffled his pack and is determined to blood as many youngsters as possible.

Everything is being done with one eye on next year’s Asian Games, and the squad for the weekend includes four 18-year-olds.

“For this leg, we change the squad again,” explained Lagiloa. “We’ll be taking in some more new boys and try to expose them to this situation. By the end of the series, we should have exposed quite a number of them to this high level of international rugby.

“We have just this group of Shaheen boys and we don’t have any more. The player pool is very shallow. There are some players who went to Kuala Lumpur who are nursing injuries, so on medical advice, they will be rested.

“But this brings a chance for some new guys to step up to the plate. We’re bringing three new guys from Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Al Ain. Imad Reyal won’t be travelling because he has club commitments.”

The UAE, who lost all four games in Kuala Lumpur, have since parted company with chief executive Ian Bremner as they pursue a new direction. The emphasis now is firmly on developing homegrown talent, and Lagiloa is not fazed by difficulty of the task that awaits them this weekend.

The UAE are as well as Cambodia, but with the tournament being viewed as a learning curve, less importance is being placed on actual results. Lagiloa added: “All these teams are well used to this level of rugby. We play Malaysia and that’s good – they have quite a number of Fijian boys there and they bring a high level of competition.

“These teams can get to a high level because they have time to go to training camps and spend time together, but we find it hard here, because of the nature of work here and the policies in place.

“I feel that as such time as we come together for a sustained period of time – a week, three days, five days – then we can start talking about winning."

 

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