UAERF defends rugby's standing in Middle East: ‘What is the legacy they want to invent?'

The secretary general of the UAE Rugby Federation has told rugby administrators not to underestimate the sport’s standing in the Middle East.

Mohammed Al Zaabi was responding to comments made by the head of the United Rugby Championship, a league which involves professional sides from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales.

Speaking to media in the UK earlier this month, Martin Anayi, the chief executive of the URC, said the competition’s new sponsorship agreement with Qatar Airways can help create a legacy for the sport in the region.

“What they can take from a partnership with a rugby competition is that we stand for great values and stand for championing those values,” Anayi was quoted as saying in the Irish Times.

“They are about legacy post Fifa World Cup in December. What do they do after that and can rugby and its values be part of that conversation going forward. Rugby has never been that in Qatar and the Middle East.

“I think rugby and western values around rugby especially are more pertinent than ever in the Middle East.

“And they are open to having those conversations around progress and sport is a big part of that conversation of how they progress, how they’re seen to be progressive, and I hope we can be part of that.”

Al Zaabi disputes the idea that rugby has never been part of the sporting landscape in the region.

“Talking about creating a legacy for rugby in the Middle East underestimates our history,” Al Zaabi said. “If you are talking about rugby in the Middle East, there was a match at a stadium in Alexandria between New Zealand Forces and a rest of Egypt side in 1943.

“Here, the Dubai Sevens has been going for more than 50 years, and it is bigger that the Sevens World Cup – and even that