Dubai: The UAE Rugby Association (UAE RA) has announced HSBC Bank will be the principal sponsor for the UAE Rugby Player Pathway programme (RPP), launched to provide opportunities for 4,000 children to play rugby and find undiscovered Emirati rugby stars along the way.
The UAE RPP was launched last year to increase the number of children playing rugby in the country by providing schools with the skills to allow their students to play in a safe environment by modifying the traditionally contact sport so it could be played as tag rugby, touch rugby or full-contact tackle rugby.
Chairman of the UAE Rugby Association Mohammad Falaknaz said: "This partnership will strengthen the reach of our current capability to grow the game. It is important for us, as rugby's governing body, to continue to demonstrate to our UAE sports authorities that we are serious in our intent to grow the game and manage the sport in a professional manner.
"UAE Rugby has already shown commitment to this through the formation of the UAE Shaheen Sevens squad, who will play Afghanistan later this week. We are very excited that younger Emirati players involved in the Pathway Programme have such role models they can look up to."
Marcus Hurry, Deputy CEO of HSBC UAE, said the sponsorship will allow the RPP to spread throughout the Middle East and also allow schools to encourage students to remain healthy and learn life skills.
