The Adult Team having lost numerous experienced players in the last two season’s is working with a young and somewhat inexperienced team but dedication in training has payed dividends.

This weekend Al Ain Rugby celebrated when the men won the Plate Competition at the Sharjah 10’s Tournament.

Congrats Al Ain Amblers Rugby

We would like to thank everyone from Al Ain Rugby who traveled to play this weekend in Doha, Qatar, and to Andre, Kit, Kat and Dave for their support and for sorting the trip out. It was a big job organizing flights and visas.

The game was great fun and even though we lost 27 – 19 after dominating the first half 19 – 3. We didnt concede the lead until just a few minutes remaining. Everyone played extremely well and a special mention to Man of the Match, Andrew on a great performance and and C**t of the match Dave Barnes aka Grandad for thinking we could have 7 guys on the bench but only able to sub 5, GENIUS!

Congratulations to Brett, Dan, Lari, Lui, Nick, Rob B and Jamal on getting their AAARFC Club Coin. Well deserved!

The Al Ain Amblers Rugby 1st team have a game vs Muscat scheduled for Thursday evening at 7. Lets train hard this week, play hard and get a big win at home.

The Al Ain Rugby Sevens was round two of four straight weeks of Sevens tourneys culminating with the Dubai International Rugby Sevens Dec 1,2,3. Well done to all who played this weekend and everyone who assisted in organizing the tournament, a good day and great after party. The Amblers Vets 10’s went undefeated in round robin play although, in typical 14 minute game fashion, a couple of those wins came after time had expired in the final play of the game. All the participating Vets teams kept the fans on their feet for every minute of every match. In the finals the Amblers continued their winning ways but the Abu Dhabi Saracens would not go down without a fight and the final match needed extra time to decide the winner. In other play the Amblers Men’s Sevens team took home the plate trophy without actually recording a win, but that’s another story….

Not long to go before the Dubai 7′s and we still have Abu Dhabi next weekend so lets train hard.

Come out and support Al Ain Rugby.

A 43-8 loss to Dubai TOA was a bit hard to swallow for the Amblers. The large score deficit didn’t reflect the game play up until half time when the score was 13-5 and it didn’t reflect the 15-10 pre-season test against TOA. However after a couple of quick tries in the second half by TOA the Amblers started to lack discipline and frustration began to mount which was a recipe for disaster as shown by the final score. Although a number of players may need to complete a self evaluation of their dedication and commitment as well as on pitch-effort a few players laid it all on the line for the entire 80 mins regardless of the score. Well done to Kiwi Jason, getting the Man of the Match for a great effort at #9. Also a mention to Ross for an awesome try and general great effort, Scotty for a few awesome runs (except your shoulder charge , Brett with a fantastic effort as Captain and of course Big Lari for his defense punishing crashes.

With one game each in pre-season tests the Dubai Wasps squared off against the Al Ain Abmblers on pitch one at the Al Ain Rugby Club this past Friday. Trevor Leota’s Dubai Wasps had won the last meeting between the two teams and rolled into Al Ain believing that they had what it takes to grab the first available points in the Gulf Conference. The Amblers knew they had a win in them if they could stick to the game plan and play hard for the full 80 mins. Pre-season had demonstrated that the Amblers had the skills needed to win but a 60 minute effort isn’t enough to seal the deal at this level of rugby. After kick-off it was apparent within only a few minutes of play that the teams were evenly matched and that it was going to take a lot of tough tackles, hard drives and heavy contact by both teams to gain the advantage. The contact was indeed punishing and a lot of players on both squads were slow to get up after the tackles, rucks and mauls. The Amblers drew first blood with some solid passing through the backs and a hard charge forward by Scott McReady to touch the ball down over the try line which was set up by a shoulder dislocating charge forward by Matt UK. The wasps however quickly answered with a try off of a handling error and followed almost immediately with a penalty kick to take the lead. The Amblers had been focusing in training on a very simple set of plays designed to draw in the opposition and setup the backs while at the same time slowing the play down so the forwards can reset after each breakdown. While the game plan appeared to be working as planned a pair of home team penalties deep in the defensive zone yielded two successful penalty kicks for the Wasps. The crowd sensed the game could be slipping away but the score was still close enough for the Amblers to make up for the penalties they had conceded. With 20 mins to go Quihen Marais scored a brilliant try with a succession of side-steps and straight-arms and the Amblers could feel that the momentum was now in their favor. Shortly after Quihen scored he made a try saving tackle that cost him a deep laceration to the face and he was forced to retire to the sideline. With only minutes remaining and the Amblers down by 4 points, former New England Patriot and 2001 SuperBowl ring owner Scott McReady answered with a brilliant run and try to take the score to 19 – 18 Amblers. A final strong defensive stand by the Ambler forwards preserved the lead and sealed the win and the first points awarded in the 2011/12 Gulf Conference series.