Duncan Hall tasked with reviving UAE rugby

The UAE Rugby Association have announced the appointment of former Australian international Duncan Hall as their new performance manager, with the former USA head coach taking up his position with immediate effect. The association had been on the lookout for a suitable candidate for some months, and CEO Ian Bremner outlined the role that Hall will take up. “His principal duties are to coach and manage national squads at 15s and Sevens - that is very much a hands-on role - and to create performance pathways that lead into our national squads. Duncan had a sneak preview of a Shaheen training session as they prepared for the Bangkok Sevens, and they were delighted to be the first people to come under his wing. Bremner added: "This is a significant development for UAE rugby. It’s a significant investment in our high-performance activity. We need to plan effectively to make sure our performance within the Asian conference we operate in, and make sure our IRB world ranking, when we gain ranking, is one we can be proud of." Hall, who has 15 international caps and was previously State Director of Coaching for Queensland Rugby, has been keeping an eye on developments with both the Sevens and 15s teams “I’ve been able to watch highlights of last year’s competition, and I saw the games against Hong Kong, Kenya and Brazil. I’ve been to club rugby over the weekend, so I’m well aware of the nature of the rugby playing population. The object now is for all players in the UAE, to provide them with an opportunity to become better players,” he said. Hall also said there was no reason why international players couldn’t improve drastically as players, despite none of the team being professional. “We’ll have to train the evenings and weekends, and you have to be prepared to do that. Back in 1991 I was sitting with the Wallabies before the World Cup in a training camp, and we sat down with the players, with a weekly planner to go through when you had available time to do the things you needed to do. "And I remember sitting with John Eales, and he trained every morning at 5am, then he went to work, and after work he went to footy training. Now the world has changed, and there’s maybe 12 countries that are lucky enough to have full time players, but I think also you need a career out of rugby, you can’t have both. We want busy people, because busy people seem to have more time to do things. If you want to be fitter personally, you have got to find the time.” Meanwhile, UAE rugby manager Wayne Marsters said that he and Hall would sit down with Bremner this week to evaluate the exact roles of each individual. “We’ve spent most of the day getting him up to speed with the rugby environment, the competitions, the various clubs, that kind of thing. He’s in charge of high-performance, which involves the Sevens programmes, 15s, Shaheen, and we’re going to start our under 16 and under 18 national squads, and we want to get our women’s programme up and running. So that’s a lot of work for one person, but we’re still to find out exactly what roles we’ll both have.” Hall’s call: What the role entails *Responsible for the senior side in both formats, as well as age group teams, alongside Wayne Marsters *Grow grassroots participation in the game *Work with clubs to aid player development *Devise strategic plan on how the game can move forward *Develop elite coaches