‘You can’t clap with only one hand’: Fijians and Emiratis combine to win title for UAE Shaheen at Dubai Sevens

UAE side are comprehensive winners against Pegler Dragons in Gulf Men’s League final

UAE Shaheen on the attack against Pegler Dragons during the Gulf Men's League final at the Emirates Dubai Sevens. Victor Besa / The National

As the crowd at the Emirates Dubai Sevens counted down the hours to seeing the Flying Fijians return to the World Series final, they were treated to an appetiser in mid-afternoon – albeit with an Emirati twist.

UAE Shaheen inscribed their name on the Gulf Men’s League title for the first time, as they beat Pegler Dragons 36-5 in the final.

The one-sided nature of the fixture told a story. At kick off, the Shaheen side lined up with seven Fijians on the field. Three – Sakiusa Naisau, Niko Volavola and Emosi Vecenaua – have appeared regularly in Pitch 1 finals in the past.

The other four have been recently employed by the UAE Rugby Federation as development officers, as part of a link up they have with Fiji Rugby.

So talented are they, Osea Kolinisau, the Fiji coach, said in the lead up to this tournament that he might have considered them for his own side. It was no surprise, then, that the Dragons were blown away by Shaheen.

The victory had a notable exclamation point, though. The final score was run in expertly by Mohammed Hatem, one of the five Emirati players in the Shaheen squad.

The fact he then added the conversion with a perfectly executed drop kick was a clue to the fact he was a former footballer. Hatem had been a footballer with Al Nasr club before trying out rugby three years ago.

Now he is running in tries in front of thousands on the main field at one of the biggest sevens events in the world.

“I was doing wrestling before, and I am fast, so I thought, ‘I need to try this game’,” Hatem said.

“Immediately, I felt like I liked it, because it is matching. It is a mixture of speed and wrestling, so I came to like it.

“I knew nothing about [the Sevens] before that, but the guys were saying, ‘It is the Dubai Sevens, it is a really huge thing’. When I first experienced it two years ago, it was amazing.”

Hatem said he was confident as he stood in the tunnel before the game, thinking “put the nerves outside, and just be happy”.

“We were playing in the final so we had to push really hard to get more scores and win the game,” he said of his late impact off the bench.

“I just wanted to catch the ball and not look back. I wanted to catch the ball and score. I don’t know how to explain the feeling when I scored, it was amazing.”

Another of the Emirati contingent, Mohammed Al Marar, was consigned to a watching brief. He had injured a shoulder in the first match of the final day, and was ruled out of the remainder as a precaution. Still, he was thrilled to end up with a winner’s medal.

“Being part of this is so good because we are part of one family,” Al Marar said.

“When we made the final, I was really excited for this. The time I was most excited was when we were in the tunnel and we were looking out at the field. I realised that everyone was looking at UAE Shaheen.

“We don’t care if we are Fijian or locals. We are all one family, on one path. You can’t clap with one hand. We clap with two hands, and this is what our team does. We all support each other.

“All the boys are happy and excited because we made the gold medal today, and we are going to enjoy it.”

Al Marar is hopeful Shaheen’s success will help attract more Emirati players to the sport.

“In the past two or three years, a lot of people with really good qualities have come to the UAE Shaheen team,” he said.

“We have invited them from schools, and they are playing really good rugby. We hope that in the next four or five years we can see an even greater growth of UAE rugby, especially among Emirati boys.”