Two of Dubai rugby’s sleeping giants will vie for the UAE Premiership title on Saturday when Dubai Hurricanes face Jebel Ali Dragons in the final in Al Ain.
Beyond their own clubs, neither side was widely anticipated to reach this point. They finished third and fourth respectively in the table, and had semi-finals last weekend against sides who had finished the regular season with significant points advantages over them.
And yet each made it through. A week after setting the seal on a West Asia Premiership and Dubai Sevens title double, Dubai Tigers were stunned at home by the Dragons.
“Nobody else was expecting much from us, but internally, we were,” Matt Richards, the Dragons coach, said. “We were pretty confident. The last time we had played them they had beaten us, but it was a turning point in our season.
“They beat us in the last five minutes, and we had proved to ourselves that we could mix it with the top teams. Before that we were scraping wins, or losing by one score in the last five minutes, rather than really nailing a performance.
“That game showed the lads they can mix it with the best players. You don’t win the league in the first week of the season, and we have been building to the end. Hopefully we have one more level we can go up in the last game.”
At the same time as the Dragons were upsetting the Tigers, perennial finalists Dubai Exiles lost their grip on the UAE Premiership crown as they were beaten by their neighbours the Hurricanes.
It is a marker of the size of the Hurricanes that their club will be involved in 12 finals at various levels, from first XV down to age group sides, this weekend.
The fact they are competing for the top honour at first-team level is remarkable, though. The Hurricanes were playing second-tier rugby last season, and only won their first match of the XVs season in the last week of January.
Their progress in the time since has been marked, most notably as they inflicted a first defeat of the season on Tigers, then in beating Exiles in the semi-final.
“There has been a hangover since Covid, and this has been the aspiration for the entire time I have been at the club – to get us to the highest level of UAE rugby,” Mike Wernham, the Hurricanes coach, said. “We know there is one more hurdle to go. Being the biggest club in the UAE, that is exactly where we want to be.
“We are incredibly excited. We have always aimed for this. Credit to Dragons, who gave us the biggest beating we have had this year [when they beat them 40-15 in November]. We were not disillusioned by that. The season changed for us during the Sevens.”
In the abbreviated format, the Hurricanes made it to the Pitch 1 final at the Dubai Sevens, where they were beaten by the Tigers.
Even without a trophy, that tournament breathed life into their campaign, according to Wernham.
“We did what we did during the Sevens, but still had no silverware,” he said. “That is what we are targeting this weekend.
“It was a goal in itself to get a win this year, coming back from last season [when they spent a season in Division 1, and won the title], but the way the first half of the season was unravelling we thought we could do more than that.
“Then we targeted top four. The win against the Dragons kickstarted the season.”
A decade or so ago, Dragons and Hurricanes were among the leading sides in the region, regularly vying with each other for top honours.
Recent seasons have proved tougher, with the likes of Bahrain, Exiles and newcomer Tigers leading the way at the top, but Wernham says the two clubs retain a similar ethos.
“Dragons and us have had similar seasons,” Wernham said. “They are an excellent team and, similar to us, they play the game for the right reasons.
“We have an unbelievably talented squad, and the game against the Exiles was the first time this season we have been at full strength.
“Fortunately, we are the same again for the final, so we have no excuses about player availability or the occasion that we are in.
“We are going to Al Ain to give it everything we have got. We respect the Dragons and what they have been through to get to this game, and we are going to give it everything.”
Richards agrees the two sides are similar, most notably in their commitment to attacking rugby.
“For the past few seasons both our clubs, Dragons and Canes, have shown we are dangerous sides when we are on, but we have maybe been bullied by bigger packs,” Richards said.
“That has been to our detriment. I don’t want to take anything away from any of the other clubs, who have been excellent this year, but I think the two form sides are in the final. We have both proved we can score against top level teams, so it should be fun to watch.”
