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UAE seek improvement
UAE Rugby’s national XV side play their second game of this season’s Asian Five Nations (A5N) Top Five campaign in Fukuoka, Japan, this Saturday lunchtime aiming for progress in performance.
The UAE face the top-ranked Asian team in the International Rugby Board’s (IRB’s) world rankings this weekend having been comprehensively defeated 85-10 by the continent’s second-highest nation, Hong Kong, at home last Friday night.
Little, in truth, is expected of the visiting amateurs as they prepare to tackle the ultra-professional Cherry Blossoms, with the sheer gulf in class between the hosts and Hong Kong and the other three teams in the Top Five (Kazakhstan, South Korea & the UAE) all too apparent; Japan ominously hammered the outclassed Kazakhs 87-0 in Almaty a week ago.
It’s hardly surprising then that UAE Rugby’s performance director Duncan Hall is viewing the outing as a building block for the closer, crunch clashes to come against the two sides of a similar standard.
“It’s a big learning curve, although a very positive one,” the former Wallaby, 56, said. “I see this as a journey of improvement, but you can only improve on things that you’d accept that you need to work on and the only way to find that out is to be found out. They (Japan) have not lost a game (in A5N history), so – if we were to win – you might say it’s a miracle.
“We’re going to try to do the best we can, yet the aim of the game is to improve upon the defensive errors of last week under pressure. We’ve got to not kick the ball away the way we did against Hong Kong. Last year, there was far too much kicking against Japan as well and we need to be better under pressure there.”
Hall has identified the XV’s collective confidence and organisation as two key areas that require further fine-tuning after analysing the Hong Kong game thoroughly on video. Minimising individual mistakes across the defensive line is an important priority, along with instilling more belief among the backs in offensive situations.
Nonetheless, Hall has already hinted he’d like to retain as many of this season’s regular A5N, Top Five squad as possible for next year, with continuity in selection perhaps being one way of ensuring progressive displays and results.
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