Rugby takes flight with youngsters in Dubai

Dubai: While everyone in Dubai was focused on yet another highly successful IRB Sevens last week, the HSBC Penguins international coaching team were putting the next generation of rugby players through their paces.

Made up of coaches from different countries, the Penguins staged three days of rugby coaching clinics for some of Dubai's lucky youngsters. The programme was organised in association with the Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union, who helped identify the schools chosen for the activity. A total of 150 children aged between nine and 14 years old took part in coaching clinic across five Arabic schools last week just as the whole city was going rugby mad.

Lynn Evans, from the Penguins, said: "The HSBC Penguins are a unique coaching team who travel around the world teaching youngsters to play rugby and training coaches so that more people can enjoy rugby in areas where the sport is still growing.

"Despite the huge profile of the international sevens in the city, it is still a relatively new sport to the Arabic community. The sevens only happens once a year and other than that the children don't get to see any rugby. However, the children seemed to really enjoy the sessions, and there was such enthusiasm for the sport."

Evans added: "Whilst we were in Dubai, the government were highlighting the problem of child obesity within the area. Tag rugby is a perfect sport for both boys and girls of all ages, and would be a fantastic way of getting the children to play more sport."