Dubai: UAE rugby coach Roelof Kotze is hoping to spring a few surprises at the Beijing Sevens in China this weekend.
The third and final round of the current Asian Sevens Series takes place at Chaoyang Stadium on Saturday and Sunday, with the UAE up against South Korea and Thailand in Group C.
The UAE have previously finished 12th out of 12-teams at both the Hong Kong Sevens in August and the Malaysia Sevens in September. But in Malaysia they had shown improvement conceding 135 points to 21 scored as opposed to 160 conceded to just five scored in Hong Kong.
“We had a shaky start in Hong Kong but did better in Malaysia. If we can just keep improving we can come a lot closer to winning a game. In this form we might surprise in China and sneak a win.
“The target in China is to keep improving but this is an experimental side hampered by national service, I couldn’t pick my best players, so we are exposing more guys to the international scene, which is only broadening our base ahead of the Al Ain Sevens at the end of the month.”
The Al Ain Sevens from October 31 to November 1, will act a seeding competition for the Chennai Sevens early next year, from which the winning team will progress to Asia’s final 12. The winner of the core 12 will qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
“Qualification to Asia’s final 12 is the next big target. We should do well in the seeding event, we’ve got a nice bit of depth now and if the players can produce the goods on the day we could seed well for Chennai. With the way the Asian circuit is, a bounce of the ball in our favour, could determine our ability to qualify for the final 12.”
