UAE drawn with Fiji at Dubai Sevens

Fiji will arrive in Dubai this week with an extra spring in their step following an impressive victory at the Gold Coast Sevens on Saturday.

The Fijians claimed the title after defeating New Zealand 26-12 in the Cup final and will go into this weekend’s Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens with a great deal of confidence.

According to the draw conducted on Saturday, Fiji will face Samoa, Argentina and the home side, the UAE in Pool A.

Pool B will see New Zealand taking on South Africa, USA and Portugal.

Pool C is made up of France, England, Kenya and Zimbabwe while Pool D will see Wales coming up against Australia, Scotland and Canada.

The 2005/2006 Sevens World Series champions looked to be in fine form as they swept aside Wales in the quarter-final stage before getting the better of South Africa, defeating them 24-7 in the semi-final to set up their final clash with the reigning HSBC Sevens World Series champions, New Zealand.

The Kiwi side had booked their spot in the final with a quarter-final win over England and then a semi-final 26-7 victory over Australia.

The young Welsh side, meanwhile, looked to be continuing the recent success of their 15s counterparts by taking the Plate honours, after defeating Samoa 26-15 in that final while Argentina claimed the Bowl with a 17-14 victory over Scotland and Papua New Guinea the Shield by beating Japan 31-19.

“A tournament like this – it’s a really big thing for the boys. We needed a platform to start it off with so it’s a stepping stone to a summit,” said Fiji’s assistant coach Etuate Waqa after the final.

“This is very important. We’ve talked about it – we want to go back to being number one in the world and if we can start it off like this, that sets a platform for us so we can go further along from this and keep building from there,” he added.

All eyes are now on Dubai for the second round of the Series at the region’s favourite sporting and social event of the year – the Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens from December 1-3.

Tickets are still on sale through www.dubairugby7s.com and from selected Costa and MMI outlets, Virgin Megastores, selected Eppco stations, Emirates headquarters, dnata offices and The Sevens stadium.

As in previous years, numerous buses will be on duty to transport fans from The Sevens, back to various convenient locations across Dubai, free of charge. These locations include: Dubai Media City, Crowne Plaza Dubai Festival City (family drop-off points), Barasti, Nezesaussi (Old Town), Irish Village, Chi @ The Lodge and more. Buses will start from 5pm on December 1 and 6pm on December 2-3 and will run on a continuous loop until 12 midnight.

For more information on the tournament, log on to: www.dubairugby7s.com

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