Dubai: When Shane Thornton was appointed coach of the Arabian Gulf Sevens side a few weeks ago he knew only too well that the colossal task of guiding his squad of amateurs past the group stages of the Emirates Airlines Dubai Rugby Sevens wouldn't be easy with South Africa, Wales and Australia around for company.
Still Thornton didn't give up hope. The New Zealand gaffer will be telling his men not to worry, but focus on themselves because the Sevens is anybody's game.
"You just have to arrive with your best game on the day because results can swing any way. Nothing is impossible and if it all works for you on the day you could go ahead and tumble someone. It's just how it all goes," said Thornton, whose side start their campaign from a tough Group A.
Hosts Arabian Gulf get the tournament underway against Australia tomorrow (11.54am kick-off) and face IRB Sevens Series champions South Africa (3.08pm) and world champions Wales (5.38pm) later in the day. The local heroes enjoyed a good outing in the tournament last year and made history when they registered their first Sevens victory, a 22-12 win over Georgia that helped them advance to the Shield finals where they eventually lost to the USA.
Tough opponents
That run was followed by another outing at the Rugby Sevens World Cup, where they came real close to beating even tougher opponents in Italy in their last group match. The Italians, however, stole the match in the dying seconds to deny their hosts another famous victory. Those performances raised the bar of expectation quite a bit and the current side is sure to be under pressure from the public who will expect them to match the exploits of the 2008 squad.
"We've been training really hard for this and hopefully we'll try and knock some of the big teams over," said Thornton, who has been coached by former New Zealand coach John Mitchell.
"We want to beat one of the top teams, but we'll take it one game at a time and work from there. We want to be structured and we've got guys who've been part of the set-up for the last four to five years and we've got some new faces; ones we're trying to bring through. So, we'll see what happens."
Apart from playing a few local sides in a warm-up tournament in Al Ain, Thornton's men trained in the company of England at The Sevens. And he has advised his men to absorb as much as they can as they go about their tournament business.
"Playing the top teams is always good and England are a strong side, so it was good experience all along. We've been training for about nine weeks, but they're all ready for it now. I hope the younger boys will learn from playing teams like Australia, South Africa and Wales because that will serve them in the future." The Arabian Gulf women's squad will participate in the International Invitation Women's tournament which also starts tomorrow.
