UAE Rugby Federation (UAERF) announced the Pan Emirate Schools Rugby Tournament will kick off on Monday May 25th, 10am at Dubai Sports City’s indoor arena.

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To be played in a 6-a-side Touch Rugby format, participating teams will represent schools from Dubai, Sharjah, Kalba, Fujairah, Umm Al Quwain and Ras Al Khaimah.

Each team will consist solely of grade 10 students with each team made up of 12 to 15 players.

“On 14 April UAERF development officers trained 6 coaches to implement the World Rugby ‘Get Into Rugby’ programme across 6 regions.” said Rugby Development manager Ben van Rooyen.

“Each region was provided with the necessary equipment and the coaches training was conducted in Arabic by the Federation’s RDOs Sami Smara and Walid Naouali.”

Each of the training sessions was overseen by van Rooyen to ensure all regions were making equal progress.

Now, in another exciting step in the development of the sport into the Emirati community, the 6 regional teams are ready to compete in the first Pan Emirate Schools Rugby Tournament.

“This project is in collaboration with the UAE Ministry of Education and World Rugby’s Get Into Rugby programme,” added Al Dhalai.

“We are thrilled with the amount of enthusiasm among the players and coaches” said Qais Al Dhalai, UAE Rugby Federation’s Secretary General. 

“This is the first time that an inter-Emirate rugby tournament has been played and we are especially honoured by the recognition of the UAE Olympic Committee and its Secretary General Mohammad Al Kamali.”