DUBAI // The majority of the region’s rugby players are enjoying a well-earned off-season break at present. The most strenuous exercise many will be undertaking will be reaching for the TV remote control, flicking through the channels to find the mid-year internationals.
Not everyone, though. Early Friday morning, a scratch squad of players quickly forging new friendships, not to mention attempting to create some semblance of playing understanding, were running shuttles up and down the Dubai Sports City rugby field.
It was the first and last chance they will have to get together to train before they face the world’s No 41 ranked side, Madagascar, in three weeks’ time.
The Air Seychelles Mike Ballard Foundation Conquistadors are made up of players from eight clubs from the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain.
They leave for a tour to the African nation later this month, where they will be taking medical equipment, wheelchairs and rugby kit.
A goodwill excursion it may be, but the players face a daunting task on the pitch, too. The side they will be playing against are ranked 32 places above the full UAE national team in the world standings.
With over 22,000 registered players, rugby is the national sport in Madagascar, meaning the tourists will have their work cut out.
“They will be doing a Haka before the match,” Winston Cowie, the player-manager and forwards coach, said.
“Many of our boys haven’t faced one of them before, so that’s incredibly exciting. A crowd of about 20,000 are expected for the match.”
For the home nation, the match against the invitational touring side is a key part of their preparations for their 2016 Test programme.
Ed Lewsey, one of a small group of Conquistadors players who also travelled to Uzbekistan with the UAE last month for the Asian Rugby Championship campaign, said the side are not overawed by the task ahead.
“The team we are playing are serious, a national side, who will be very good, so we have had to recruit well,” said Lewsey, the Conquistadors scrum half and backs coach.
“We have got some of the best players in the Gulf, and we have had a training session to get a bit of organisation. We feel we are going to be prepared for a great game.”
The Conquistadors first formed in order to play at the 2015 Dubai Rugby Sevens, with the sole purpose of supporting the Mike Ballard Foundation.
Ballard, who was paralysed in an accident while playing a domestic match in Abu Dhabi in 2014, is now back working in the capital.
The foundation was initially set up to cover the costs of his rehabilitation, but he is now keen to redirect the funds to other causes.
“Abu Dhabi Harlequins and the entire Gulf rugby region really came together to support me,” said Ballard, after overseeing Friday’s training session.
“They raised a bunch of money to get me through my rehab so I was able to take a year and a half off and not worry about anything on the financial side. That was amazing.
“Now I’m back here, we realised we had all this in place, all these people who want to get involved and help. I’m back out, living on my own, independent, working, driving, so where can we go from here?
“That is when we shifted from trying to raise money to support me, to looking for other projects to help other people around the world.”
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The Bio
Name: Lynn Davison
Profession: History teacher at Al Yasmina Academy, Abu Dhabi
Children: She has one son, Casey, 28
Hometown: Pontefract, West Yorkshire in the UK
Favourite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite Author: CJ Sansom
Favourite holiday destination: Bali
Favourite food: A Sunday roast
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Profile
Name: Carzaty
Founders: Marwan Chaar and Hassan Jaffar
Launched: 2017
Employees: 22
Based: Dubai and Muscat
Sector: Automobile retail
Funding to date: $5.5 million
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
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7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
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8.50pm: Calandogan
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NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The specs: 2018 Jeep Compass
Price, base: Dh100,000 (estimate)
Engine: 2.4L four-cylinder
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Power: 184bhp at 6,400rpm
Torque: 237Nm at 3,900rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 9.4L / 100km
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THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
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Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
The specs
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Power: 201hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 320Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.7L/100km
Price: Dh133,900
On sale: now
RACECARD
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Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The biog
Simon Nadim has completed 7,000 dives.
The hardest dive in the UAE is the German U-boat 110m down off the Fujairah coast.
As a child, he loved the documentaries of Jacques Cousteau
He also led a team that discovered the long-lost portion of the Ines oil tanker.
If you are interested in diving, he runs the XR Hub Dive Centre in Fujairah
THE BIO: Martin Van Almsick
Hometown: Cologne, Germany
Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)
Favourite dessert: Umm Ali with dark camel milk chocolate flakes
Favourite hobby: Football
Breakfast routine: a tall glass of camel milk
'Cheb%20Khaled'
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