UAE beat the heat and hit new heights after thrashing Malaysia in Asian Rugby Championship

It was the perfect end to the best night in the 13-and-a-half-year history of UAE rugby as a competitive entity. Or at least the best since two weekends earlier.

So much so that, in an air-conditioned box just above hundreds of rapt supporters, an Emirati official in a kandura was bopping along to the rap music that was booming out of the stadium speakers. It had been that sort of evening.

Gareth Newman, the replacement scrum half, had just sent through an inch perfect grubber kick for Sakiusa Naisau to touch down his third try and the UAE’s 10th. The seal was set on a 62-19 win over a Malaysia side who were eight place above them in the World Rugby rankings.

It was the most emphatic exclamation mark to a second statement win in the space of consecutive weeks that said: “UAE rugby is back.”

It is so very back. In fact, scenes like this are more or less unprecedented here. Before this month, it had been years since the UAE had played home Test matches at all. Some years they did not even have a single 15-a-side fixture of any sort.

They have spent the recent past washing around the middle tiers of Asian rugby, getting some unlikely stamps on their passports, but all the while craving a return to the elite of continental competition.

And now, here they are. Assuming Hong Kong beat South Korea on Saturday, the UAE will finish in second place in the Asian Rugby Championship, their highest placing ever.

“We were laughing about the fact we were playing Pakistan last year, then suddenly we are playing these boys," Jacques Benade, UAE's head coach, said.

“The first game [a 52-5 loss] against Hong Kong might have been the best thing that could have happened to us. It showed us that we were not even close to where we want to be.

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