UAE look to get Asian Five Nations campaign back on track

Dubai: The UAE hope to get their Asian Five Nations campaign back on track at home to South Korea on Friday after an opening 53-7 loss to Hong Kong last Saturday.

UAE coach Duncan Hall said: “Although the scoreboard doesn’t reflect the effort [in the opening round], the players put in a positive and confident performance.

“A number of combinations we have worked on were executed successfully, we achieved a number of turnovers, our defence was strong and our scrums were dominant. Ultimately, our respective fitness levels came into play in the final quarter of the game where, unfortunately, Hong Kong held the upper hand,” added Hall.

He added of the Korea match, to be held in Al Ain: “A number of our key players were either unavailable to travel or were recovering from injury [last week] so to have a complement of over 90 per cent [players] to draw from is an advantage. We successfully challenged Hong Kong on a number of fronts, and this building experience was invaluable as we move into this year’s campaign. We believe we can put in a strong performance against Korea this weekend.”

UAE Rugby Federation chairman Mohammad Falaknaz said: “Korea is a team that deserves respect. Their performances in last year’s Asian 5 Nations in winning all of their games with the exception of current champions Japan outlines their quality. That said we are looking for a big ‘home’ support in Al Ain to spur us on.”

Notable changes in the UAE team are the inclusion of Al Ain Amblers player Ross Combe, Harry Woods, Sean Hurley and the return of Renier Els as captain, who steps in at the expense of David Knight, Gareth Armstrong, Kenny Munier and James Ham (due to minor injury).