DUBAI — A little piece of history was made for Saudi Arabia late Thursday evening at the Emirate Airlines Rugby Sevens here.



Two of the Kingdom’s teams qualified for the quarterfinals of the Gulf Men’s Cup. It is the first time that this has happened and one team, Jeddah, has a large proportion of young Saudi men playing.



The matches, Jeddah versus Dubai Hurricanes ended in a 27-7 victory for Jeddah and the other, Riyadh Falcons versus Dubai Wasps, saw the Falcons grab a 12-0 victory. This put both teams in the quarterfinals, but as the draw fell, they played each other for a place in the semifinals.



On the first day of the International rugby, Russia proved what a force it is becoming. Holding the Argentine side to two tries to one in the first half, the second half saw one try apiece, but a display of ball handling and passing confirmed they have been hard at work developing their skills.



Russia 10, Argentina 17.



It took Wales just 46 seconds to draw first blood against New Zealand with Ifan Evans rapid score converted by Will Thomas. Despite its best efforts, New Zealand could not break the Welsh defense for the rest of the half, but 30 seconds into the second period, Kurt Baker’s try and Tomasi Cama’s conversion put the All Blacks on a level footing. Cama went on to score his own try which he converted sealing the New Zealand victory at 14-12.



England’s charge for a hat trick of cup wins in Dubai took a tumble against South Africa. The Springboks scored an unconverted try after nearly five minutes of the two sides warily probing the other’s defenses, with England responding with a try 90 seconds later. Keeping the ball in play after the period, South Africa notched up a converted try. England responded with another five points three minutes into the second half reducing the deficit to just two points. Within two minutes, the Springboks spotted an opportunity to charge through the English backs, who seemed to be busy forming a committee to decide who should tackle the fast approaching Stephan Dippenaar. While engrossed in their deliberations, Dippenaar jogged through to score and had Philip Snyman make an easy conversion. South Africa 17, England 10.



It was though an entirely different proposition when the Springboks took on Portugal. It produced the shock upset that characterizes Sevens rugby. The only try of the first half came after nearly five minutes from Portugal’s Pedro Leal, who also converted it. The South Africans struck back with two unconverted tries in the second half from Chris Dry and Philip Snyman but a final try from Aderito Esteves left the Springboks and the crowd stunned.



Portugal had not finished with making its mark. In a full thunderstorm more suited to Twickenham than Dubai, the Portuguese caused England, who had earlier scraped a win over Samoa, to go to pieces in a very scrappy first half.



The second half was 100 seconds old when Portugal struck again with a converted try when England momentarily gathered its skirts and ran in two well-worked tries both converted, leaving the Portuguese on 19 points to England’s 21. Taking the opportunity to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, Dan Norton fouled, right in front of the English posts, a Portuguese player heading for another try and was yellow carded.



The simplest of penalty kicks with seconds to go from Leal put Portugal ahead by one point. That sealed England’s fate and shattered its hopes of the Dubai Cup hat trick.



For Saudi Arabia, Jeddah in its last pool match overturned Riyadh Falcons in the middle of a thunderstorm in a match that saw a nasty kerfuffle end in a Jeddah player being sent off. There is a history of antagonism between the two teams so aggression levels were high and the match would see one of them out of the tournament. It was to be Riyadh.



Jeddah scrumhalf Sou Miyake knifed though the rival’s defenses to score two magnificent tries and was the grim reaper to its attack. Jeddah, with over half the team Saudi nationals, played at a level way beyond expectation in driving rain lancing into the players and lightning fizzing overhead.



Jeddah’s defense was solid and aggressive, and neither side gave any quarter and apart from the single incident it was both extremely hard and clean. Jeddah won with three unconverted tries to one, 15–5.



In the quarterfinals Jeddah was up against the formidable local team Sharjah Wanderers. The rain over and the pitch greasy, Jeddah raised its game yet again with tries from Rob Holyard, Sou Miyake and Waleed Yousef.



Sharjah responded and scored its last try with a long run in in the dying seconds of the game, which tied the teams 17-17. The sudden death playoff was just that; sudden. From the kick-off Sharjah fumbled the ball and the “everywhere man” Miyake shimmered through the traffic, snatched it up and sprinted straight over the line between the posts – it was all over in 15 seconds.



For the second straight year, Jeddah is in the semifinals and perhaps will repeat its cup success of last year. — SG