Thousands of sports fans from Britain have already filled one stadium in the Middle East this week.
Much to the chagrin of the travelling Welsh supporters, England were comfortable winners when the two sides met at the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium in Doha at the World Cup on Tuesday night.
Three days later, fans of both countries will have to play nice in the scaffolding stands at the Dubai Rugby Sevens, seeing as they will be backing the same team this time around.
For the second year in a row, there will be no England, Wales or Scotland at the Sevens. Instead, they will be represented by a collective Great Britain side.
GB played the first two legs of the World Series last season in Dubai. It was then dissolved into its constituent parts for the remaining events. Now, though, they have been thrown together again, and this time for good.
The top four sides on the series this season will gain automatic qualification for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. In the past, England were nominated to play for qualification on GB’s behalf.
It was decided ahead of this season that GB would join the series full time, nominally to give themselves more time together ahead of the Olympics, but also because of budgeting constraints.
Perhaps luckily in this week of all weeks, the men’s side are captained by a Scotsman, Robbie Fergusson. It meant he could be an impartial arbiter between his side’s ranks of English and Welshmen during the big match in Qatar.
“That is part of the bonding process,” Fergusson said. “You get to know the boys, and they are all passionate about their home countries.
“But we are all very passionate about driving this as well. A lot of that comes from the off-field culture, taking little bits from the Welsh, little bits from the Scottish, little bits from the English, and merging it all together.
“We all know each other well from before, but there is still rivalry. You still have your home nation part of your heart.
“We are not trying to be something different. It is about integrating all of the teams and finding common threads in terms of the way we work as a Great Britain team.”
It was confirmed in July GB would join the series, and Fergusson acknowledged the new entity is still finding its feet.
“In sevens in general, you live year by year on your contracts,” said Fergusson, who also has a role in the set up as a technical skills coach.
“There was a lot of stress last year because we were waiting on this decision. We all knew it was coming. The boys’ contracts were up in September, and we didn’t actually get new contracts till later on, so there were gaps in employment.
“As a playing group, we are trying to focus on the rugby side of things and control what we can, because there are a lot of moving parts off the pitch.
“We were only set up six to eight weeks ago. We are still looking for sponsors, funding, and there are all things like that happening in the background.”
Fergusson pointed out the minting of a new GB team is another sign of how sevens and XVs are moving apart, and he hopes the abridged format can become the goal for aspiring players in future.
“Hopefully by becoming Great Britain sevens we can drive the ambitions of young players to want to play sevens as a goal,” he said.
“That is massive within our group because we want to inspire that next generation to come and play sevens by seeing us be successful, going to Olympics.
“The Olympics is a huge thing for any athlete. To have that there should incentivise a lot of people.”
GB face the toughest possible challenge in Dubai this weekend.
Results
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UAE v Gibraltar
What: International friendly
When: 7pm kick off
Where: Rugby Park, Dubai Sports City
Admission: Free
Online: The match will be broadcast live on Dubai Exiles’ Facebook page
UAE squad: Lucas Waddington (Dubai Exiles), Gio Fourie (Exiles), Craig Nutt (Abu Dhabi Harlequins), Phil Brady (Harlequins), Daniel Perry (Dubai Hurricanes), Esekaia Dranibota (Harlequins), Matt Mills (Exiles), Jaen Botes (Exiles), Kristian Stinson (Exiles), Murray Reason (Abu Dhabi Saracens), Dave Knight (Hurricanes), Ross Samson (Jebel Ali Dragons), DuRandt Gerber (Exiles), Saki Naisau (Dragons), Andrew Powell (Hurricanes), Emosi Vacanau (Harlequins), Niko Volavola (Dragons), Matt Richards (Dragons), Luke Stevenson (Harlequins), Josh Ives (Dubai Sports City Eagles), Sean Stevens (Saracens), Thinus Steyn (Exiles)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
THE DETAILS
Kaala
Dir: Pa. Ranjith
Starring: Rajinikanth, Huma Qureshi, Easwari Rao, Nana Patekar
Rating: 1.5/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
FULL%20FIGHT%20CARD
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The view from The National
FIGHT CARD
Welterweight Mostafa Radi (PAL) v Tohir Zhuraev (TJK)
Catchweight 75kg Leandro Martins (BRA) v Anas Siraj Mounir (MAR)
Flyweight Corinne Laframboise (CAN) v Manon Fiorot (FRA)
Featherweight Ahmed Al Darmaki (UAE) v Bogdan Kirilenko (UZB)
Lightweight Izzedine Al Derabani (JOR) v Atabek Abdimitalipov (KYG)
Featherweight Yousef Al Housani (UAE) v Mohamed Arsharq Ali (SLA)
Catchweight 69kg Jung Han-gook (KOR) v Elias Boudegzdame (ALG)
Catchweight 71kg Usman Nurmagomedov (RUS) v Jerry Kvarnstrom (FIN)
Featherweight title Lee Do-gyeom (KOR) v Alexandru Chitoran (ROU)
Lightweight title Bruno Machado (BRA) v Mike Santiago (USA)
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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MO
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Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
Mica
Director: Ismael Ferroukhi
Stars: Zakaria Inan, Sabrina Ouazani
3 stars
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
Where to buy
Limited-edition art prints of The Sofa Series: Sultani can be acquired from Reem El Mutwalli at www.reemelmutwalli.com
MATCH INFO
Southampton 0
Manchester City 1 (Sterling 16')
Man of the match: Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City)
Five famous companies founded by teens
There are numerous success stories of teen businesses that were created in college dorm rooms and other modest circumstances. Below are some of the most recognisable names in the industry:
- Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg and his friends started Facebook when he was a 19-year-old Harvard undergraduate.
- Dell: When Michael Dell was an undergraduate student at Texas University in 1984, he started upgrading computers for profit. He starting working full-time on his business when he was 19. Eventually, his company became the Dell Computer Corporation and then Dell Inc.
- Subway: Fred DeLuca opened the first Subway restaurant when he was 17. In 1965, Mr DeLuca needed extra money for college, so he decided to open his own business. Peter Buck, a family friend, lent him $1,000 and together, they opened Pete’s Super Submarines. A few years later, the company was rebranded and called Subway.
- Mashable: In 2005, Pete Cashmore created Mashable in Scotland when he was a teenager. The site was then a technology blog. Over the next few decades, Mr Cashmore has turned Mashable into a global media company.
- Oculus VR: Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR in June 2012, when he was 19. In August that year, Oculus launched its Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $1 million in three days. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion two years later.
MATCH INFO
Newcastle United 1 (Carroll 82')
Leicester City 2 (Maddison 55', Tielemans 72')
Man of the match James Maddison (Leicester)
Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
MATCH INFO
Manchester City 3 (Silva 8' &15, Foden 33')
Birmginahm City 0
Man of the match Bernado Silva (Manchester City)
From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
It Was Just an Accident
Director: Jafar Panahi
Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr
Rating: 4/5
Most sought after workplace benefits in the UAE
- Flexible work arrangements
- Pension support
- Mental well-being assistance
- Insurance coverage for optical, dental, alternative medicine, cancer screening
- Financial well-being incentives
