ABU DHABI // Different captain, different coach. Same old Jebel Ali Dragons.
Over the past two seasons they have played six finals, won six. In 2013 they clinched a treble of domestic trophies by coming from behind to beat an Abu Dhabi Harlequins side who were unbeaten in the calendar year on their home patch.
Ditto for 2014.
In fact, just dig out the cuttings from the corresponding fixture last year, change a few of the names around at the top, and it should read more or less the same.
Even the travelling supporters wore the same club-issue Hawaiian shirts. Hopefully they have been washed in the meantime.
The sub-plots were similar, too. Last year, the away side were missing a key player, Tim Fletcher, as the final clashed with his honeymoon. This time around they were down two more players – each vital to the cause – because of matters of the heart.
Ian Overton, the free-scoring winger, was in the UK for his father’s funeral. The sides observed a minute’s silence before kick off as a mark of respect, while the Dragons players wore black armbands.
In addition, Paul Hart, last year’s successful captain and arguably the main driving force behind the Dragons’ recent domination of Middle East rugby, was also absent – though for far happier reasons.
The former captain’s second son was born at 11am on the morning of the game.
Rupert David Edward Hart does not know it yet, but he is clearly already a Dragon. He was expected to arrive in three weeks, but Dragons have a habit of turning up on finals days.
Whereas Fletcher kept abreast of last year’s final on Whatsapp from San Francisco, Hart managed to steal enough time way from parenting duties at Medcare hospital to keep updated via the club’s Facebook page.
Wherever they were in the world, Dragons would have been happy with what they read, after they overcame an early 11-6 deficit brought about by a try for Rob Buaserau and two Luke Stevenson penalties.
Losing a sixth successive final must have grieved the Harlequins enough, but the familiarity with their opposition’s game changers must have made them sick.
Sean Crombie scored two tries – just as he did in this game 12 months ago – while the other two scorers, Murray Strang and Imad Reyal, have switched allegiances from Quins since last year.
A second successive triple crown was fine reward for the new captain and coach partnership of Taif Al Delamie and Ross Mills.
The coach said he had felt under pressure to deliver more trophies after the successes of last season.
“I have felt like Rafa Benitez when he joined Inter Milan after Jose Mourinho won the treble,” Mills said. “My wife came in from work one day and I was panic stricken at home. She said, ‘what’s up with you’, and I said, ‘I’m coaching the Jebel Ali Dragons’.
“She said I had been happy with that a couple of weeks before, but I’d just taken a step back and realised what I had done. But the players have won this because of them, not me.”
Billy Graham, the Quins captain, felt his side had underperformed given their form in winning 10 successive matches this year.
“We lost our shape and our set piece was not as good as it has been in previous weeks and the Dragons were strong in those areas,” he said.
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Academics: Phd in strategic management in University of Wales
Number one caps: His best-seller caps are in shades of grey, blue, black and yellow
Reading: Is immersed in books on colours to understand more about the usage of different shades
Sport: Started playing polo two years ago. Helps him relax, plus he enjoys the speed and focus
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Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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MATCH INFO
Rugby World Cup (all times UAE)
Final: England v South Africa, Saturday, 1pm
The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
'Project Power'
Stars: Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dominique Fishback
Director: Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman
Rating: 3.5/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Employment lawyer Meriel Schindler of Withers Worldwide shares her tips on achieving equal pay
Do your homework
Make sure that you are being offered a fair salary. There is lots of industry data available, and you can always talk to people who have come out of the organisation. Where I see people coming a cropper is where they haven’t done their homework.
Don’t be afraid to negotiate
It’s quite standard to negotiate if you think an offer is on the low side. The job is unlikely to be withdrawn if you ask for money, and if that did happen I’d question whether you want to work for an employer who is so hypersensitive.
Know your worth
Women tend to be a bit more reticent to talk about their achievements. In my experience they need to have more confidence in their own abilities – men will big up what they’ve done to get a pay rise, and to compete women need to turn up the volume.
Work together
If you suspect men in your organisation are being paid more, look your boss in the eye and say, “I want you to assure me that I’m paid equivalent to my peers”. If you’re not getting a straight answer, talk to your peer group and consider taking direct action to fix inequality.
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