As against-the-odds sporting narratives go, the UAE's task this evening against Japan, Asia's one great rugby superpower, is just as great as any faced by Rocky Balboa in the films of the same name.
Happily for the national team, some of their players have spent the preceding weeks in the HSBC Asian Five Nations doing all they can to get into character.
With a shaved head, a broken nose and a shiner of a black-eye, Chris Jones-Griffiths was the embodiment of the UAE's indomitable team spirit in the opening two matches.
Having been without a game last week, the bruises have started to fade, but the Abu Dhabi Harlequins prop is willing to do it all over again for the cause today.
"It happened in the first ruck of the first game of the A5N [Asian Five Nations]," Jones-Griffiths, 30, a quantity surveyor from north Wales, said of the injuries incurred in the opening draw in Sri Lanka. "I threw myself in blind, and I just recall a sharp pain to the side of my cheek.
"It swelled up completely so I basically had a golf ball on the side of my face. The physio came on, put a blob of Vaseline on the side of my face, and I thought, 'There is no way I am going off here.'
"That spurred me on to get more physical with the Sri Lankans, then 20 minutes later I broke my nose in another collision. By the end of the game I resembled Sly [Sylvester]Stallone in Rocky. It has more or less cleared up now, but if it happens again [today], so be it. I will take the punishment for the win."
Over the course of the opening two matches against the Sri Lankans and then Kazakahstan - after which the UAE remain undefeated - Jones-Griffiths has been outstanding.
So good was he on a quagmire field in Colombo, he was picked out for special praise by Bruce Birtwistle, the head coach, who usually prefers to focus on the collective rather than individual endeavours.
"Chris just had an absolute storming game," Birtwistle said, citing his 16 carries - "all but one of them going forward" - as evidence of his fine work in the loose.
"It is not very often that I will walk into a changing room and single somebody out, but his performance was quite superb, especially in those conditions."
The numbers are more indicative of a loose-forward than a front row, which is perhaps not surprising given Jones-Griffiths has only moved to prop very recently.
He arrived in Abu Dhabi three-and-a-half years ago as a back-rower, but the city's club were well stocked in that position, prompting him to move forward in the pack in search of game time.
He only finally gave in to the inevitable and agreed to be a full-time front-rower in January this year.
His success in the position for the UAE so far has been remarkable, given his inexperience. As a marker of how far he has come, his opposite number this evening, Kesuke Hatakeyama, will have played more Test matches (16) than Jones-Griffiths has spent weeks in that position.
"He has gone on to do wonderful things for the UAE so far and, as a club, we are so proud of him," Alistair Thompson, the head coach who has overseen his transformation at Abu Dhabi, said.
"Chris was injured for part of the season, and he changed to prop from second row. He only played one or two full games for us in the front row.
"Since he started working with the UAE, he has stayed injury free, worked very hard on his fitness, and he has been like a different player.What he lacks in experience he will more than make up for in what he is willing to give for the team."
Jones-Griffiths's mother, father and brother have decided to travel from their native Anglesey to the UAE to watch the latest edition of his unlikely bloom as an international rugby player.
"When I came out here, my body was battered and I was very close to just throwing the towel in and giving the game up completely," Jones-Griffiths said.
"I arrived in Abu Dhabi, and realised that the best way to get to know people is to join the local rugby club. Within a couple of weeks I was running out in the Gulf Cup semi-final in Doha.
"At that point in time I had no aspirations for playing international rugby, but it is something that has happened very quickly over the last six months. It is fantastic."