As the Australian women’s team marched through the tunnel at the back of Pitch 1 early in the afternoon of finals day at the Emirates Dubai Sevens, Emily Eglen was walking the other way.
She had a broad smile on her face, and another winner’s medal round her neck. Were she not so unassuming, she might have looked across at the Aussies and thought: “I will be seeing you again soon, with any luck.”
The Australians already have a decent cheat code in their ranks. Maddison Levi, who is arguably the standout star of the abridged version of the women’s game, scored nine tries in their three pool matches on the first day this weekend.
Dubai Phoenix, the leading UAE-based women’s team, have a Levi Mini-me of their own. In the final of the Gulf Women’s League against Chameleons Rugby, Eglen scored a hat-trick inside four minutes in the first half.
The former DESS College schoolgirl added two more in the second half, and her five-try haul gave Phoenix a second successive Gulf title with a 25-10 win.
Eglen had also been the star of the final 12 months earlier. In the meantime she moved back to her native Australia, having grown up in Dubai and represented the UAE in the past.
Her switch to Brisbane is with a view to having a crack at one day representing Australia. She is playing mostly XVs at present, but she hopes to catch the attention of sevens sides.
“Looking at the Aussie girls and how well they play, it is definitely a dream for that to happen,” said Eglen, who only landed back in Dubai a couple of days before the start of the Sevens.
“I will have to build up to it, as I only moved home six months ago. I need to get more training. Quite a few coaches we have had over here are with the Aussie girls in Australia, so they have always helped get me in to speak to people about it.
“We will have to see how it goes, but I am going to keep going and try to build towards it.”
While the win extended Phoenix’s fine record at the Sevens, the achievement of the runners up in reaching the final was just as noteworthy.
The Chameleons are ostensibly based in Doha, mainly because their organisers live there. But they are in fact the equivalent of Barbarians side, with individual players picked up from all over the Mena region - including Syrian and Egyptian nationals - to get together for the Dubai Sevens.
They finished third in their debut in the competition last year, and went one better this time around.
So impressive were they, after the game, the two sides were trading details with the intention of meeting up for more fixtures in the future.
“It’s crazy to have our second win in two years and it feels so good,” Eglen said. “To beat a team like that, not knowing who they were, having not played them yet, we did really well.
“They are really good and quick, and we had had some easier games today, so it was tough, but we are really pleased.”
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Zayed Sustainability Prize
Six tips to secure your smart home
Most smart home devices are controlled via the owner's smartphone. Therefore, if you are using public wi-fi on your phone, always use a VPN (virtual private network) that offers strong security features and anonymises your internet connection.
Keep your smart home devices’ software up-to-date. Device makers often send regular updates - follow them without fail as they could provide protection from a new security risk.
Use two-factor authentication so that in addition to a password, your identity is authenticated by a second sign-in step like a code sent to your mobile number.
Set up a separate guest network for acquaintances and visitors to ensure the privacy of your IoT devices’ network.
Change the default privacy and security settings of your IoT devices to take extra steps to secure yourself and your home.
Always give your router a unique name, replacing the one generated by the manufacturer, to ensure a hacker cannot ascertain its make or model number.
The years Ramadan fell in May
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
PULITZER PRIZE 2020 WINNERS
JOURNALISM
Public Service
Anchorage Daily News in collaboration with ProPublica
Breaking News Reporting
Staff of The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.
Investigative Reporting
Brian M. Rosenthal of The New York Times
Explanatory Reporting
Staff of The Washington Post
Local Reporting
Staff of The Baltimore Sun
National Reporting
T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose and Robert Faturechi of ProPublica
and
Dominic Gates, Steve Miletich, Mike Baker and Lewis Kamb of The Seattle Times
International Reporting
Staff of The New York Times
Feature Writing
Ben Taub of The New Yorker
Commentary
Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times
Criticism
Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times
Editorial Writing
Jeffery Gerritt of the Palestine (Tx.) Herald-Press
Editorial Cartooning
Barry Blitt, contributor, The New Yorker
Breaking News Photography
Photography Staff of Reuters
Feature Photography
Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin of the Associated Press
Audio Reporting
Staff of This American Life with Molly O’Toole of the Los Angeles Times and Emily Green, freelancer, Vice News for “The Out Crowd”
LETTERS AND DRAMA
Fiction
"The Nickel Boys" by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
Drama
"A Strange Loop" by Michael R. Jackson
History
"Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America" by W. Caleb McDaniel (Oxford University Press)
Biography
"Sontag: Her Life and Work" by Benjamin Moser (Ecco/HarperCollins)
Poetry
"The Tradition" by Jericho Brown (Copper Canyon Press)
General Nonfiction
"The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care" by Anne Boyer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
and
"The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America" by Greg Grandin (Metropolitan Books)
Music
"The Central Park Five" by Anthony Davis, premiered by Long Beach Opera on June 15, 2019
Special Citation
Ida B. Wells
Specs
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Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
