Seiichi Shimomura, centre, takes on the UAE during the Test match at The Sevens on May 10, 2013. AFP
Seiichi Shimomura, centre, takes on the UAE during the Test match at The Sevens on May 10, 2013. AFP
Seiichi Shimomura, centre, takes on the UAE during the Test match at The Sevens on May 10, 2013. AFP
Seiichi Shimomura, centre, takes on the UAE during the Test match at The Sevens on May 10, 2013. AFP

On this day, May 10, 2013: Eddie Jones’s Japan thrash UAE in a rugby Test match in Dubai


Paul Radley
  • English
  • Arabic

Rugby’s spirit of camaraderie means it is not unusual for opposing players to have their picture taken with each other after matches.

The shots the UAE players got after their Test match against Japan in Dubai on this day in 2013 should be cherished keepsakes by now.

Memories of that 93-3 defeat will have endured long after the bruises have faded. Most notably, the identity of the opposition coach.

Any encounter with Asian rugby’s one great superpower was guaranteed to be Mission Impossible for the part-timers from the Emirates.

To put the challenge into focus, on this occasion, Japan’s coach was Eddie Jones.

Pitch Two at The Sevens, lined as it is by neatly manicured grassed banks, might seem a little humble for a man of Jones’ achievements. The uber-coach, after all, has been to World Cup finals with three different teams.

At this point in time, though, he was midway through masterminding Japan’s campaign to make a success of the 2015 World Cup in England.

At this point, they had won just one World Cup match ever, and that way back in 1991.

That would be rectified in such dramatic fashion two years later, with the win over South Africa in Brighton that even inspired a movie.

Given the disparity in resources available to the two nations, Japan really did not need a coach of Jones’ calibre to be assured a win in Dubai.

On their previous trip to the city for an Asian Five Nations fixture, they had meted out a 111-0 drubbing to their hosts on the main field at The Sevens.

This time around, they opted to rest a number of first team players with a view to a heavy schedule they had to follow – but ended up falling a converted try short of reaching three figures again.

Jones happily posed for photos with the defeated UAE players, and was complimentary about their efforts.

“The UAE got stuck in, they contested well and made the breakdown difficult for us,” Jones said, before offering an opinion on the next assignment UAE would face.

“I'm sure the UAE, if they play like that against the Philippines, will do well.”

Unlike a year earlier, when Jones had correctly forecast UAE would win their seminal match against Kazakhstan and retain their place in the top-tier of Asian rugby, he was wrong this time.

A week later, UAE lost to Philippines and were relegated from the Asian Five Nations. They have not been back to the top flight since.

That was the real bitter pill, not the trouncing by Japan. The Philippines was seen as a winnable match – the Japan one certainly was not.

“Quite simply, Japan are a juggernaut, they are well ahead of the competition in fitness, skill, resources and development," Duncan Hall, the UAE coach, had said in the lead up to the game.

“Our overall goal from the 2013 tournament is to retain our position in the Top Five and we had identified two games as winnable. That is not our goal or focus for this match.”

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

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  • Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
  • National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
  • In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
  • Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
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“My clients are mostly Filipinos, and they [all want to know] about good conduct certificates,” says the 34-year-old Filipina, who has lived in the UAE for five years.

Ms Gado contacted the Philippines Embassy to get more information on the certificate so she can share it with her clients. She says many are worried about the process and associated costs – which could be as high as Dh500 to obtain and attest a good conduct certificate from the Philippines for jobseekers already living in the UAE. 

“They are worried about this because when they arrive here without the NBI [National Bureau of Investigation] clearance, it is a hassle because it takes time,” she says.

“They need to go first to the embassy to apply for the application of the NBI clearance. After that they have go to the police station [in the UAE] for the fingerprints. And then they will apply for the special power of attorney so that someone can finish the process in the Philippines. So it is a long process and more expensive if you are doing it from here.”

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