After a long hard season of rugby 7s, and 10s tournaments, UAE women’s rugby teams, Dubai Eagles and Al Ain Amblers, came together to play the first leg of a mini 15s series at the Ambler’s home ground on Friday evening.

The 7s form of rugby between these two teams has always been a physical encounter, and this was no different. The Eagles side (a combination of their A, B and C teams) was under pressure from the start with the Amblers scoring an early try from what would be their main and prominent play – quick recycling of the ball to their power runners.

The Eagles, although putting in some impressive tackles, were under pressure off the rucks and the scrums. It was only when they did what brought them success at the 2018 Dubai Sevens, which was retaining the ball and work their support play, that they managed to get ball wide.

With the Amblers going in at half time 21-12 up, the Eagles knew they had to be patient, trust in their fitness, and work on their offloads and it paid off with an early try. Amblers responded by drawing the Eagles’ defence in and use width and a simple but effective two vs one out wide. This was to be the only try of the second half for the ladies from the Garden City as the Eagles started to find their rhythm, securing cleaner ball off the set piece and offloading to their dynamic runners to punch through and score out wide.

The final score was 46-26, with both teams exhausted and shuffling off the pitch to the cheers of the ever supportive Al Ain home crowd, after what was a true 15s battle.