Despite a disastrous Under-20 Asian Sevens Series, in which they totalled three wins in 10 games, Roelof Kotze believes his young UAE side are making strides.

The UAE finished seventh of eight teams in the opening leg of the Series in Malaysia on August 16, following that up with an eighth place finish in Hong Kong a week later. But UAE rugby’s performance manager Kotze looks back on the Series with some satisfaction.

“We’re definitely playing better sevens,” said the South African. “We’re very competitive in the first half. Except for two games out of 10, we were either ahead, drawing or behind by just a conversion or a try. We were very much in the games. We won three but should have converted more chances. The guys played better, it was disappointing we couldn’t finish.”

– RWC: England coach Lancaster to name squad on Thursday
– RWC: Italy’s Brunel: Selects Bernabo ahead of BortolamI
– #360RUGBY: Freddie Michalak is back, England’s exiles excel

He also felt his side did not get the rub of the green and feels his youngsters are not far off the required level.

“In Malaysia one player got suspended for two games. In Hong Kong, Izzy (Foa’i) got injured in the first game. On the last day we ended up with just 10 guys,” he added.

The skill levels of his players are on par with their opponents but Kotze feels their fitness must improve in future.

“The skills are there now, we now need to get the other half of game done, conditioning. That should see us catching up next year,” he said “I’d like to start them earlier. Maybe we could identify the group earlier in order to work on our conditioning.”