When Saturday comes: weekend change ushers in a new era for Gulf rugby

In all truth, when Dubai Tigers and Dubai Exiles renew acquaintances in the UAE Premiership this weekend at Dubai Sports City, little will feel different.

The ball will still be a prolate spheroid made of rubber-polyester. The weather will likely be fair, and the grass green.

And yet the fixture will be quietly ushering in a new era. From now on, amateur players across the country will be getting their regular rugby fix on a Saturday, after a history spent waiting for Friday to come.

League fixtures will be resuming for the first time since the government announced the move to a four-and-a-half day, Monday to Friday working week.

Although the change will scarcely be noticeable, it has left some to reflect on the alteration to a ritual that was unique to the Gulf.

“In the old days the weekends with Thursday-Friday, so we had to work Saturdays, and on a Friday there used to only be one flight in and one flight out with Gulf Air, not like today where there are several,” said Andy Cole, the long-serving chairman of Abu Dhabi Harlequins.

“Sometimes you might fly out, then on the way back a group of dignitaries might have decided to join the flight to the UAE from, for example, Bahrain, and a number of players would be bumped off the flight.

“We would have to talk to each other and work out who would lose their job if they didn’t make it to work tomorrow.

“Then players with families would want to get back to make sure their kids and wives weren’t worried. It was like a lottery to narrow down who was going to go home.”

Cole first joined the capital’s oldest rugby club, who were then known as the Abu Dhabi Bats, for the 1991-92 season.

Pitch markings for rugby were once drawn by hand by volunteers, who poured lime powder from