A Short History of the Dubai Exiles

What began with a small band of British expatriates in the late 1960s keen to do something other than watch their waistlines expand has exploded into a rugby provider to rival any rugby club anywhere in the world. Our co-hosting of the 2008 Dubai Sevens in which 50,000 people per day packed out the new 7he Sevens Rugby Stadium is clear evidence of our progress over the years.

But things were not always on the scale and grandeur of today.....

Rewind 40 years....having obtained a small plot of land in Bur Dubai with the help of the Dubai Municipality the enthusiastic founding members of the Dubai Exiles RFC set about leveling, grading, marking and erecting goalposts on a sand pitch. However with membership begining to increase and a grass-less playing field to call home, an unusual setback caused the cessation of play at our new home...On arriving for a match one particular Friday in 1968 the players got an early insight into the march of progress that Dubai would later become famous for...bisecting the middle of the pitch was a row of newly erected  telegraph poles!

a ball, a patch of sand and rugby spirit

Thankfully the setback was only temporary, Dubai's benevolent ruler, His Highness the late Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum came to the rescue with a donation of land, which became our permanent home (until March 2008) in  Al Awir.

By the 1970's the growth of the club began to gain momentum. Membership steadily increased with facilities developing to keep pace with the club's mushrooming popularity. This included the building of the original Clubhouse (which was still in use until early 2008). Finance for expansion was raised through private and public donations and included a generous gift from the club's patron HH General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (Ruler of Dubai, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE).

This growth continued throughout the 1980's while the 90's saw more infrastructure being added in terms of additional sand pitches (yes-we were still playing on all-sand playing fields), a double story clubhouse and a permanent grandstand which underneath housed seven changing rooms. 1996 saw the first of our grass pitches in preparation for a pre-qualifying round of the IRB World Cup Sevens which was being held as part of our annual Dubai Sevens that had been running since the club's inception (in 1970 the Dubai Exiles Sevens began with the inauural winners being a British military team; Staffordshire Regiment).  Later a total of four grassed, floodlit pitches came online which were untilised by not only rugby but also football, Gaelic football, hurling and world class music acts such as rockers Aerosmith. By 2000 as well as hosting the Dubai leg of the IRB Rugby Sevens World Series,  our Dubai Sevens had grown to host over 150 teams  who participate in the three day event travelling from all corners of the rugby playing globe.

 The final whistle at Al Awir

In 2008, Dubai's phenomenal progress continued and we 'up goalposts' and headed out to Dubai's new state of the art purpose built rugby stadium on the Dubai-Al Ain Road (aptly named simply '7he Sevens') . The new facility can accomodate tens of thousands of fans, has six playing fields and recently at the 2008 Emirates Airlines Dubai Sevens (which we co-hosted) set a new world record for a sevens tournament when 50,000 enthusiastic rugby supporters gave Dubai's newest super venue a huge 'thumbs up'.

50,000 fans can't be wrong...7he Sevens 2008