‘They’re gladiators, not players’: First all-Arab Dubai Sevens women’s match ends in draw

Their first try scorer is nicknamed “Sonic” because of her speed. They know their coach as the “Arab Portia Woodman”. And the team’s founder just reckons they are all “gladiators”.

The fact they were reliant on a missed conversion to earn them a draw in their first match at an Emirates Dubai Sevens hardly mattered. They were every bit deserving of a share the spoils in the first ever all-Arab women’s game at the Sevens.

Al Arabi are making history this weekend as the first female side from Syria to play in the Middle East’s longest running rugby festival.

It was fitting that they should face Al Maha, the trailblazing Emirati team, in their opening fixture in the Gulf Women’s tournament. It finished 10-10, and they are thrilled to be on the scoreboard.

“To get a draw in our first game is a very beautiful feeling, and we are super excited. This is an honour for us,” Roushana Mrad, the Al Arabi captain, said.

“People might not know there is a lot of conflict in our country. We have a lot of struggles economically, and we don’t even have a playground to play on.

“We started from zero. We only had 10 days to practice. And now here we are. We want to show that the Syrian ladies team is resilient.”

Fair to say, they have had many obstacles to overcome, from playing in a conflict zone, to going without the basics. They play on a football field now, but their introduction to the sport was on concrete.

“We were waiting so much time for someone who was travelling to get us a ball,” said Basel Halabi, the team’s founder.

“When we first started the team we had three balls – one size three, one size four, and one official size. For three months we only trained with two of those.

“Everything was impacting the growth of the game, but