Dubai: When Beth Coalter, the Tournament Director of the IRB Sevens World Series, praised Dubai for its major role in helping rugby secure a spot in the 2016 Olympics during the pre-event press conference on Tuesday she was referring to the incredible success that is the Dubai Rugby Sevens.
Success that convinced - and coaxed - officials from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the Sevens format is the sport with which to spice up future Olympic programmes.
The Dubai Sevens is one of the oldest sporting events in the Middle East, or better said the oldest "organised" sporting event in the region - perhaps even older than some of the football leagues in this part of the world. The tournament has served rugby fans well, by not only keeping the sport alive, but by being the reason why the sport has thrived here.
That's why tomorrow when The Sevens opens its doors to the Emirates Airlines Dubai Rugby Sevens, it will only be fitting for Dubai to host the first tournament following the sports inclusion in the Olympic schedule. For organisers, it will be double the joy as they'll also be toasting to the 40th anniversary of the tournament, which has grown way beyond the wildest of imaginations.
And while the top 16 teams do battle in the 2009-10 World Sevens Series opener, another 164 teams will vie for the honours in the 11 categories that make up the Invitational Tournament.
Champions
Holders of both the Dubai and the IRB Sevens World Series crowns, South Africa, who registered a solid 19-12 victory over England in the finals here last year, are sure to start as favourites. They will be followed by the English who will be made to feel at home by their thousands of travelling and resident fans. World Sevens champions Wales are lacking a bit of sting this time around as they've travelled with a new-look outfit, but then again the Welsh surprised everyone when they beat some of the top teams en route to the trophy in March and with World Cup winning coach Paul John laying down the law in the Welsh camp it would be foolish to write them off just yet.
Five-time winners New Zealand surprisingly failed to impress in Dubai last year. The Kiwis were red hot for the World Cup too, but they were dumped out of the competition at the quarterfinals stage by Wales and their last 2008 Sevens outing too ended without any silverware as they lost to England in the semis. The Kiwis will be keen to prove themselves and with veteran DJ Forbes captaining the side once again, New Zealand will definitely be a force to be reckoned with starting Friday.
Dubai hasn't been a happy hunting ground for the Kiwis' trans-Tasman neighbours Australia. The Aussies have never won here, but they've arrived with an extremely fit and technically sound squad and they too will start as one of the top sides.
Argentina missed out narrowly at the World Cup finals as they were beaten by a resurgent Wales, but the Pumas will be hoping for better luck to end 2009 on a high. They wouldn't have forgotten their 26-24 Sevens humiliation at the hands of Kenya and they'll be more than eager to leap into the thick of things in the hope of breaking their Dubai hoodoo.
Robust islanders
While the robust islanders from Fiji and Samoa are always a potent threat on the Sevens circuit, it is the emergence of the lesser African nations such as Kenya and Zimbabwe that has taken the Series by storm in recent times. The Kenyans in particular have been incredible and last year was a breakthrough season of sorts for them as they reached the semifinals of the Rugby World Cup and finished runners-up to Samoa in the Plate Finals in Dubai. Key for the Kenyans will be the form of try-scoring machine Collins Injera, who blitzed the 2008-09 season and went on to score the highest number of tries in the Series. Injera was short-listed for the IRB International Sevens Player of the Year award, but was beaten to the title by England's Ollie Phillips another class performer in this format of the game.
Russia, Portugal, France, USA and Scotland have been improving year after year and their presence and ability to stage upsets will keep the excitement levels high during the group stages of the competition.
Hosts Arabian Gulf enjoyed a particularly good run last time around finishing runners-up to the US in the Shield competition. They'll be looking to better their run as always, and with a relatively newer and fitter side taking to the field, it will be interesting to see if this team of part-timers can spring surprises like they did the last time around when they nearly beat Italy in their last group match.
Whatever happens over the next few days, the Dubai Sevens is sure to once again dish out an extravagant event, which of course will be worthy of much praise.
