Cairo club getting bigger and better

Dubai: Cairo tend to be one of the easiest teams to spot off the pitch at the Dubai Sevens thanks to their tradition of wearing colourful galabeyas, topped by a red fez. And back by popular demand this year is the club's 'cow' print which went down a storm in 2003.

Vets captain Karl Wilkinson said: "We always do well with the cow print and when we're all sat together in the stand we can call it the cow shed!

"We're well known for the way we dress and people love it, total strangers will come up and say 'hi' and have a chat."

Local guys

On a more serious note, Cairo have this year brought around 40 players and supporters to Dubai, a clear sign of how the club is growing and thriving right now.

Wilkinson added: "Things are starting to take off and we now have a lot of young national guys playing and coming through. At training we now enough people for locals to play the expats and that's great.

"This year, for the first time, we also have an Egyptian captain, Mohammad Salah, who had never played until five years ago. We have a lot of local guys at training who are at university and our kids section is also growing very fast - we sometimes have upwards of 120 running around."

Six years ago Cairo were the only rugby club in Egypt.

But Alexandria, a two-and-a-half train trip away, are also developing quickly while the American University in Cairo have enough interest for officials to be looking seriously at establishing a squad there.