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Rugby history to be made as Israel and UAE to play first game

Two players embrace during their joint training session in the UAE. Credit: Israeli Rugby Union

Israel and the United Arab Emirates’ first meeting on in a field sports arena will be a rugby union match, it has been revealed.

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The two teams trained this week in the UAE and will contest a friendly game tomorrow at Rugby Park in Dubai Sports City, a historic day for rugby and the sporting world.

The two nations were part of a landmark peace deal in 2020. On August 13, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the United States signed a joint statement, normalising relations between the countries. Now they will contest a rugby match, the first of its kind, this Friday (March 19th).

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The Israeli team, including their Sevens players, flew out to the UAE on Monday ahead of their joint training sessions.

“This collaboration is a fantastic example of what sports can do,” Israel’s head coach, South African-born Kevin Musikanth, told The Jerusalem Post. “It can bring people together, it doesn’t know any barriers… There was no hesitation for working together.”

“Rugby is a game born around discipline and comradery – the ability to work together for something greater than yourself,” he says, adding that he hopes the upcoming events will change the way Israelis view rugby.

“Our team has a high level of natural abilities…hopefully, with this historic event, the public will be able to identify the fact that we have a talented team with high aspirations. With the country’s support we should be able to progress.”

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Israel are set to compete against Romania, Ukraine, Belgium, Croatia, Czechia, Sweden, Luxemburg, Denmark, Latvia, Hungary and Turkey in the upcoming 2021 European Rugby Championship Cup.

UPDATE 13.11 19-3-2-21: First line: Their first meeting in a field sports’ contest as opposed to any sporting contest. 

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JW 4 hours ago
France player ratings vs England | 2025 Six Nations

Sorry my delivery on that joke was a bit bland. But to reply to the couple of good points you make, to me it just seemed like they had no plan with why Gatland was staying on. I mean the plan seemed to be “just get us a win against Italy and we can continue on as we are”, which is just terrible if that’s what Gatland was trying to achieve for Wales imo.


Did it just happen to be Italy that he saw his team weren’t able to achieve his vision of success? I mean Italy are a very good side so its by no means a lost cause to not look like world beaters. Sure his focus should have been on more transient factors like growth and style for a full rebuild, not trying to avoid the wooden spoon.


Which brings me to you main point, that would be exactly what the benefit of dropping down a tier would be. A chance to really implement something, get good at it, then take it up a level again once you’re ready. Even for Italy it must have been an incredibly brutal environment to have been trying to develop as a side.


Not saying of course that the other EU teams would be any better, but it might be better for everyone if say ‘years of tough losses’ are shared between countries, rather than see Wales go through this journey two, three, possible four years in a row. Of course the main reason they don’t want to miss just one 6N season is because it would probably tank the game in their country missing out on all that revenue. I have always said they should look at widening the revenue share, there are plenty of competitions that have systems to keep bottom teams competitive, and the 6N would only make more money if it was a tierd competition with prom/rel.

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