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More than 200 young rugby players from across the Gulf will land at Bahrain Rugby Football Club (BRFC) in Saar this weekend for the final round of this season’s HSBC Youth Rugby Series.
The hugely successful and highly-competitive series has become the signature event for junior rugby teams across the region since its launch in 2011. Having kicked off in Abu Dhabi back in November, it moved on to Dubai in January and Doha in March before the conclusion in Bahrain on Friday afternoon.
Bahrain has been well-represented at all the previous tournaments, with silverware captured at the opening two events. As well as some impressive team performances, Bahrain, in the shape of Fin Matthews and Alex Egan, also provided the player of the tournament in the U-10 age group at the Abu Dhabi and Dubai events, respectively.
This Friday’s bumper tournament will feature competitions at U-8, U-10, U-12, U-14, U-16 and U-18 levels, with teams from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar making the journey.
Set to get underway at 11am, the festival will run through the afternoon before the official presentation ceremony, in the presence of senior HSBC officials, at around 5pm.
The ‘HSBC Skills Zone’ will also be making a return after an impressive debut in Bahrain last year. Speaking ahead of the event, BRFC’s rugby development manager Sam Wilson said it was a great way to finish off the season.
“The HSBC Series has become the top prize for junior rugby across the region and we are delighted to be playing host to the final event of the season as it will bring a great sense of climax to the occasion.
“At the end of the day, all our kids want to do to is play games and we are delighted to welcome teams from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha this weekend for what should be a great advertisement for junior rugby across the region.”
While the attention of most at BRFC will be on the HSBC Festival this weekend, the club’s resident gym monkey and first XV number eight Tom Jankowski will be preoccupied in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau, as he lines out for Poland in the latest round of European Nations Cup.
Jankowski and his teammates will be looking to make it four wins from four outings in the latest edition of the biennial tournament to keep on course for a crack at qualification for the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England
