UAE in dream Sevens debut

UAE had a dream debut at the Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens despite losing all their Pool A matches at 7he Sevens on Friday. They lost 55-12 to Samoa in their opening match, restricted Fiji to 43-0 and went down heavily to Argentina 73-7 in the last Pool A tie. It was a historic day for the UAE National Team as the country was celebrating its 40th National Day. Although people had predicted a whitewash, they held their heads high restricting Fiji, winner of Round 1 in Gold Coast to a low score.Dubai Exiles scrum half Emad Reyal from Sri Lanka drafted into the side for the Goa Sevens a fortnight ago, shocked the mighty Samoans with a spectacular break from the halfway mark to score UAE’s first try in the fifth minute and put the finishing touches after the hooter had sounded with Emirati Cyrus Homayoun having a hand in the second.“It’s just awesome and it’s nice to represent the UAE. It’s like my home country, so I’m proud to be a part of that,” said an elated Reyal who previously represented Lanka Lions in the social segment of the Dubai Sevens for the past three years.“I just wanted to win the game for the UAE and make the country proud - that’s it. This was my ambition from a very small age. I told my dad that I wanted to play for the UAE someday, so I’ve achieved that and I’m happy about it.”UAE Coach Wayne Marsters gave Emirati Humayoun and Stefan Imbert a chance in the dying minutes of the game“We are very excited and proud to perform the way we did. We could not have asked anything better against Samoa,” said Homayoun.Marsters admitted UAE came up short in defence. “Defensively we were 10 or 15 pints a better team than we were this morning. But the first one is always going to be bit of a shock to us,” he said.