Dubai : Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union (AGRFU) chairman Andrew Cole is supremely confident that the Arabian Gulf's last ever hopes of qualifying for the IRB Rugby World Cup will not be compromised by the IRB's decision to disband the team at the end of 2010.
The Arabian Gulf are back in the HSBC Asian Five Nations Top 5 competition to be held next year following their 44-24 win over Chinese Taipei at The Sevens last weekend. Should they go on to win that tournament, they will be Asia's direct entry to the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand.
The situation could get complicated though, if the IRB stick to their decision to terminate the AGRFU's membership, as was announced in January. But Cole is optimistic common sense will prevail. “Should the Arabian Gulf team qualify, you couldn't just switch to a UAE national team then,'' said Cole in an interview with XPRESS.
“I have already had conversations about this with the IRB and will be having more conversations over the coming months. I don't think postponing the membership withdrawal by a little while should be an issue.''
Cole also seized the opportunity to clear the air on whether the inevitable move would also lead to the AGRFU being disbanded. “The AGRFU is not being disbanded, but its IRB membership is being withdrawn,'' he explained while adding: “The IRB is pushing for each country to be represented by a national team. One of the reasons is because it is pushing for an Olympic berth.''
However Cole said that expat players who currently dominate the Arabian Gulf team can breathe easy thanks to the IRB's relatively relaxed ruling on players being allowed to play only upon holding a passport of that particular country.
“As far as the IRB is concerned, that is irrelevant. A player just needs to be a resident in that country for three years [which is the present criteria]. It could only be an issue with the local authorities. But when I see a UAE cricket team consisting mostly of Asian expats, I don't see it being a problem,'' said Cole, who underlined the AGRFU's new role would be to assist each of its member nations in setting up their individual rugby federations.
“I'm currently working on a 10-point plan which I will soon be introducing to the member teams. I will then bring it up at [June's] Annual General Meeting for approval after which I will take it to the IRB,'' said Cole.
We're here to stay, says skipper delamie
Dubai : Taif Al Delamie could not have celebrated his 23rd birthday in finer fashion than leading the Arabian Gulf back into the HSBC Asian Five Nations elite division following their win over Chinese Taipei last Saturday.
And the bustling centre believes the team have improved tremendously since last year's relegation to Division One. “We've got something like 15 new caps in this side, that's huge,'' said the young Omani Irish on an emotion-packed day which saw him become the first Arab national to captain the side.
“A lot of new players are coming into the side. A lot of us played in the Rugby World Cup Sevens so we've played a lot of rugby this year. So I feel we are a much stronger side than last year. And we are not going to go back up into the HSBC Asian Nations and get relegated again, we're there to stay,'' he declared.
