Riyadh, left, and Toa Dubai pack down for a one-sided scrummaging battle on Thursday night.
Riyadh, left, and Toa Dubai pack down for a one-sided scrummaging battle on Thursday night.

Leota to the fore for Toa Dubai in rout



DUBAI // Riyadh's inside-centre obviously did not get the memo. "What is the point of travelling all the way from Riyadh if we are going to tackle like this?" he raged at his shell-shocked colleagues, after Toa Dubai rumbled over for their umpteenth try on Thursday night. Here is a tip: get the team bus and park it in front of the try-line. It might have plugged some of the leaks, but even then the tourists would have struggled to halt the onslaught.

Resistance against the red tide was futile. When the Sri Lankan referee eventually took mercy on Riyadh, the Gulf's newest club had set the seal on an 88-0 victory. Not bad for their first attempt. "The best thing we can take out of the game is that it was confidence building for the young guys," said Toa's captain, John Mamea-Wilson. "We have told them to enjoy it, but not to think they are now any better than they were at training. They were rubbish at training."

There was a sense of foreboding among the visiting ranks even before the start, when their waif-like winger glanced across the field to see the colossal Trevor Leota, who was once labelled the world's best hooker, gamely leading Toa's energetic warm-up. "Don't worry about them, just concentrate our game," he was advised by one of his more experienced teammates. Easier said than done when the opposition look like a collection of Easter Island statues, just a little bit harder.

For the most part, Leota was able to stroll through the game, busying himself instead with giving tips to some of the emerging Arab players who were also part of the Toa pack. It is what he is paid to do, after all. Leota has been recruited as the scrum coach at the Elite Sporting Academy, based at nearby Repton School, which supplies a number of young players to the Toa side. Only once did Leota really get the chance to stretch his legs, when Riyadh gave a demonstration in precisely what not to do from a restart.

The kick was hoisted straight into the arms of the on-rushing colossus, and his would-be tacklers, who had been reticent at best until then, were suddenly non-existent. He passed the ball on out of pity rather than necessity, and Toa had another try under the posts, merely seconds after their previous score. Significantly, Toa pitched a group of Emirati players into 15-man action for the first time.

The pack, for instance, pitted the promising young Emirati prop Dumble Mohammad Abdullah alongside a Lebanese expatriate, Sol Mokdad, with Leota at hooker. The UAE nationals revelled in the experience with Walid Salm, a 23-year-old convert from football, and Mohammad Shakar both touching down tries. "From the first minute I was very nervous", said Shakar after his try-scoring introduction to the 15-a-side game.

"Trevor was encouraging us from the start, telling us not to be nervous, to enjoy the game and play it from our hearts. "I actually thought it would be far more difficult playing this game than sevens, but with all the experienced players around us it made it easy. "When I scored my try in the corner in the second-half I thought, 'Finally, I've done it'. "We have been playing sevens and 10s for quite a while now, and we all still want to do that as well. Perhaps now we will start to concentrate on 15s."

pradley@thenational.ae

Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions

There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.

1 Going Dark

A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.

2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers

A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.

3. Fake Destinations

Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.

4. Rebranded Barrels

Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.

* Bloomberg

How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
  • The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
  • The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
  • The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
  • The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
  • The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
How Beautiful this world is!
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ESSENTIALS

The flights 
Fly Etihad or Emirates from the UAE to Moscow from 2,763 return per person return including taxes. 
Where to stay 
Trips on the Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian cost from US$16,995 (Dh62,414) per person, based on two sharing.

RACE CARD

6.30pm: Handicap (TB) $68,000 (Dirt) 1,600m

7.05pm: Meydan Sprint – Group 2 (TB) $163,000 (Turf) 1,000m

7.40pm: Curlin Stakes – Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (D) 2,200m

8.15pm: UAE Oaks – Group 3 (TB) $125,000 (D) 1,900m

8.50pm: Zabeel Mile – Group 2 (TB) $163,000 (T) 1,600m

9.25pm: Balanchine – Group 2 (TB) $163,000 (T) 1,800m

10pm: Al Shindagha Sprint – Group 3 (TB) $130,000 (D) 1,200m

Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Specs

Engine: 51.5kW electric motor

Range: 400km

Power: 134bhp

Torque: 175Nm

Price: From Dh98,800

Available: Now

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
Scores in brief:

Day 1

New Zealand (1st innings) 153 all out (66.3 overs) - Williamson 63, Nicholls 28, Yasir 3-54, Haris 2-11, Abbas 2-13, Hasan 2-38

Pakistan (1st innings) 59-2 (23 overs)

The BIO:

He became the first Emirati to climb Mount Everest in 2011, from the south section in Nepal

He ascended Mount Everest the next year from the more treacherous north Tibetan side

By 2015, he had completed the Explorers Grand Slam

Last year, he conquered K2, the world’s second-highest mountain located on the Pakistan-Chinese border

He carries dried camel meat, dried dates and a wheat mixture for the final summit push

His new goal is to climb 14 peaks that are more than 8,000 metres above sea level

The%20new%20Turing%20Test
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Sunday's games

Liverpool v West Ham United, 4.30pm (UAE)
Southampton v Burnley, 4.30pm
Arsenal v Manchester City, 7pm

Skewed figures

In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458. 

'Joker'

Directed by: Todd Phillips

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix

Rating: Five out of five stars