Former England captain Dylan Hartley appointed director of rugby at Dubai Sharks

Dylan Hartley has set his sights on helping Dubai Sharks join the top flight of UAE rugby after being appointed as the club’s director of rugby.

The Sharks, who finished sixth in the second-tier of the domestic game last season, have announced the former England captain will be joining the club.

The arrival of the 97-cap international, who captained England to the Six Nations grand slam in 2016, is a startling appointment for a team who were close to going out of existence four years ago due to a lack of playing numbers.

Since then, though, they have grown to become one of the bigger clubs in the country in terms of playing members at both senior men, women, and mini-and-youth team levels.

“Sharks are developing,” Hartley, 36, said. “We are aware of that, and we are realistic in terms of our ambition.

“I think every club should have ambition. I wouldn’t join an organisation unless we had ambition. We want to win. We want to do things and achieve, but there is a process to that.

“Long-term, if we think about playing Premiership rugby and competing there, that could be a realistic long-term goal for us. In terms of the short-term and where we focus now, it is on our youth. We have a great youth set up, with 350 kids growing to 400.

“Imagine if we could do such a good job with our kids and retain them, we could be playing on the big stage in a few years’ time because we are not looking for players, we have grown our own and are looking after our own.”

Hartley will be moving with his young family to Dubai, and dovetailing his role at the rugby club with Access Hire Middle East.

The equipment rental company, who sponsor the Sharks, leant them the use of 12 solar-panelled floodlights so they could play in the evening at their