Dubai Exiles coach Jan Venter believes his side’s Gulf Conference success is a sign that the once formidable club are heading back in the right direction.

Exiles clinched Gulf rugby’s second- tier trophy with a nail-biting 35-33 win over Muscat in Oman last Friday, thanks to tries from Jack Stapley, Jason Murphy (2), Scott Hutton and Adrian Dennis.

However they were forced to deal with an absent referee, a hostile crowd and then a missed conver-sion late in the game that would have denied them the win that took them above Xodus Wasps on points difference.

The Dubai club have lost just once since the turn of the year – a 22-18 defeat to Wasps – and Venter believes they have put the disappointment of missing out on Gulf Top Six qualfication well and truly behind them.

“It’s nice,” Venter said of their success. “I said last year when I took over that we needed some silverware this year and we have got it.

“The nice thing is I’ve built a coreof guys coming into the second part of the season and I could definitely see them improving with every game, playing together as a team more than individuals. I believe that I’ll have those core guys playing into next season.”

Venter admitted that having the assistant referee step in at the last minute for his missing colleague was not conducive to a flowing game.

“The referee didn’t pitch up for what reason I don’t know, so the AR took the game and it was not the nicest rugby game I ever saw,” he added.

“There was a lot of barging and off-the-ball play and at Muscat as well there are no barriers next to the pitch so at one stage some of the spectators were on the pitch arguing with the referee, intimidating my players so it definitely wasn’t easy.”

In such circumstances, Exiles were just happy to get off the park with the win.

The South African coach added: “It was a win, it was nice and the guys celebrated nicely coming back. I’m happy with the way the season Success: Exiles finished with a trophy. ended.”