Following the success at the Dubai and the Qatar National Day Rugby Sevens, the Qatar Rugby Federation (QRF) has decided to launch its first-ever Qatar Rugby 7’s League from February 6.
The tournament spans over eight weeks and includes preliminary rounds with each team playing each other twice and a finals series (semis and finals).
The eight teams will play against each other for the right to call themselves Qatar’s 2016 Rugby 7’s champions. This initiative has been brought about by the commitment of the Doha registered rugby clubs and QRF president Yousef al-Kuwari. The new annual competition will act as a bridge between senior domestic and national representation. It will also provide an incentive for all clubs in Doha and further engage new players, supporters, volunteers and sponsors.
“In the coming years Qatar Rugby hopes to develop this competition and others to further improve the quality of Rugby and help embrace more players from clubs from all over the region,” said al-Kuwari.
“We hope the Qatar rugby community will come and support their favourite team, and this wonderful sport that we admire so much.”
Isaac Banks, player cum manager of DRFC Hurricanes said, “We think the Sevens Championship is a fantastic addition to the QRF calendar. A lot of players will enjoy the wide open spaces.
“We’ve been playing a lot of 15s rugby. We have been focusing more on conditioning our bodies for the rigours of Sevens which is a much faster game.
“We hope to perform well. We played some teams in a Sevens tournament early last year - but probably the majority has changed. The quality of rugby has been improving in Qatar, so we are quite unsure as to what we’ll face.”
Blue Falcons captain Rony Georges said his team, in only its second year of existence, is looking forward to the new competition. “We are quite excited about this tournament. Our club is in its second year of existence and we have more and more Francophone players joining. So it will be a perfect opportunity to let as many players participate in all the different competitions,” Georges said.
“We hope to win a couple of games, and we also hope to face our opponents proudly. Thanks to QRF, there are now more and more players and we are not sure who we will face but we are really looking forward to the league. We now have a good level in 15s, and for the first time, a Blue Falcon Team participated in the Dubai Sevens. We are really looking forward to improve our level and to be very competitive.”
He added that French rugby influence is an advantage for them. “We have a good aerobic level, and these little things that make the French Rugby: Offloads, repetition of phases, and insane runs.”
College of North Atlantic-Qatar player-manager Bertus Pool said, “This is a new challenge for us as we usually play 15’s Rugby. Our team is always up for new challenges and we are looking forward to the 7’s. We have been working much harder on fitness and skills in spreading the ball around faster.”
