Day in the Life: Ex-England rugby star on organising this year's Emirates Dubai Sevens

“ A Day in the Life ” allows you to step into the shoes of a UAE resident to experience a typical 24 hours in their work and home life

Mathew Tait knows his way around a pitch, having lit up rugby's biggest stage for England against South Africa in the 2007 Rugby World Cup final in Paris.

Sixteen years later, the former rugby player is a year into his role as the general manager and festival director of Emirates Dubai Sevens.

The 37 year old is responsible for developing commercial and strategic opportunities across both the Emirates' Dubai Sevens and the Sevens Stadium. He oversees logistics, social media, marketing and manages the teams and the event calendar.

With the much-anticipated tournament kicking off this week on December 1, the father of two has been busy setting up what is poised to be an action-packed weekend of sport, live performances and experiences.

Here, he shares with The National how his typical weekdays look and what it takes to organise an epic weekend in Dubai.

Up at the crack of dawn, Mr Tait leaves his home to take his two sons, aged eight and 10, to school in Al Barsha before driving 25 minutes to the Sevens Stadium for a full day of work.

If he has time, he'll head to the gym for short cardio intervals or a HIIT session.

"I don't have the patience to do anything more than 30 minutes, so I'll do some cardio on an assault bike, with 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off," he said.

"Then I'll get straight into replying to emails and working through various tasks for the day, or I'll go through budgets and sit down with members of the team to make sure they're OK.

"If I don't get to the gym, I'll go for a walk around the site."

With so many moving parts to the event, Mr Tait uses his morning to