Eight women’s sevens teams from across the region squared off in round robin games at the capital’s Zayed Sports City, the home ground of the Abu Dhabi Harlequins.

Eight women’s sevens teams from across the region squared off in round robin games at the capital’s Zayed Sports City, the home ground of the Abu Dhabi Harlequins. Siddharth Siva / ArabianEye

The game is played on a full pitch and is full contact with each half lasting seven minutes.

The game is played on a full pitch and is full contact with each half lasting seven minutes. Siddharth Siva / ArabianEye

Qatari rugby rivals the Doha Oryx and the Doha Trojans fight for the ball in Abu Dhabi.

Qatari rugby rivals the Doha Oryx and the Doha Trojans fight for the ball in Abu Dhabi.Siddharth Siva / ArabianEye

The women follow exactly the same rules as the men.

The women follow exactly the same rules as the men.Siddharth Siva / ArabianEye

Abu Dhabi’s ladies of rugby play fair, but not nice

Siddharth Siva

It takes a special kind of woman to excel in what has been primarily a man's game, and there are a number of such women in the UAE. Prominent among them are the Abu Dhabi Harlequins, a female rugby sevens team that kicked off in the capital in 1993. They have won the Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union Women's Championship twice, in 1998 and 2008.

As Abu Dhabi prepares to host a match between two of London's most bitter rivals, the Harlequins and the Wasps, on January 30 - which will be the biggest rugby game the capital has ever staged and the first time an English rugby union fixture has been played abroad - we showcase the women's tournament hosted last weekend by the Abu Dhabi Harlequins.

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