ABU DHABI // Three-and-a-half years ago, some Dubai Hurricanes players went down to Abu Dhabi to help out, just to make sure the capital’s newly formed club could raise a team.
Saracens were taking their first tentative steps in competitive rugby back then and they needed all the help they could get.
Even with the new players in tow, though, they took a pasting from Abu Dhabi Harlequins’ second string on their domestic rugby debut.
How times have changed.
Few players remain from those days, and they do not have to pick up the scraps from other UAE clubs any longer.
The Saracens contact book is now the most far reaching in the domestic game.
For example, thanks to their links with the club of the same name in London, they have arranged for a three-month loan of a new fly-half.
Elliott Reeder, 19, a former Saracens academy player in the UK, was playing just his third game for the Abu Dhabi version yesterday.
Clearly, he has wasted no time in getting up to speed.
The No 10 scored 23 points for the home side in a peerless performance against a side who finished runners-up in the UAE Premiership before Christmas.
It was the centrepiece of another extraordinarily dominant display from the Gulf Top Six’s youngest club, who ran out 43-24 winners against the Dubai Hurricanes. With three wins from three, they are making the early running for a place in the season-ending final.
“We are improving each week,” Reeder said. “I wanted to come out here and get some game time under my belt, and we have been putting in some good performances.”
Before the season started Alistair Thompson, the Saracens player-coach, had tried to downplay the expectations on his side, who are playing only their second season alongside the Gulf’s elite clubs.
However, the Scottish No 8 said he had been quietly optimistic they could reach the sort of standards they are starting to deliver regularly. “I am not surprised,” said Thompson, the former UAE captain. “I knew we could come into this competition and be competitive, but there is a long way to go.
“This was a very nice victory because there was a gap. Last week [when they beat Harlequins] was very tight and it could have gone either way.
“We are not getting ahead of ourselves, but we do have aspirations to go on and challenge for this championship.”
Daniel Perry, the Hurricanes captain, said Saracens are the side to beat in the Gulf Top Six.
“I think they will be there at the end of the season,” Perry said. “They are building and they have a backline now to go with the forwards.
“Hopefully we will be up with them at the end of it. I think we gave them too much respect, knowing they were a good, eight-man side, but we played to their strengths more than we did ours.”
The capital club’s bonus-point victory meant they keep pace with Doha at the top of the cross-border competition. The Qatari side were similarly comprehensive in beating their regular rivals Bahrain 45-24.
Across Abu Dhabi, the UAE Premiership champions Harlequins picked up their first win of the Top Six campaign at the third attempt, as they beat Jebel Ali Dragons 25-18.
pradley@thenational.ae
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