Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union
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| Sport | Rugby union |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1974 |
| Chairman | Andrew Cole |
| Men's coach | Bruce Morton |
| Women's coach | Vanessa Lloyd |
| Website | www |
The Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union (AGRFU) was the governing body for rugby union in the Gulf Cooperation Council member countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. To begin with, most matches were played on sand but today almost all matches are played on grass pitches. As well as organising local competitions, the AGRFU also hosts the Dubai round of the IRB Sevens World Series, and hosted the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens in Dubai. Teams are mainly made up of expatriates, although an increasing number of locals are getting involved.
The AGRFU administers the Arabian Gulf rugby union team.
In January 2009, the International Rugby Board announced that the AGRFU would cease to exist by the end of 2010, to be replaced by separate unions in each member country. The first new union to be formed is expected to be that of the UAE. More recently, the union men's XV side finished off its rise from 1995, from having only played a handful of international fixtures to literally gaining respect from Rugby Unions around the world after successive wins against Hong Kong and Korea. The most capped player of the union is Mark Gathercole; this record will now not be beaten as the union has now been disbanded. It is also believed that Gathercole was the only IRB International Prop forward to have played on the IRB's World Series Sevens Circuit and hold a full international XV cap.
The AGRFU uses the name "Arabian Gulf", which is used by the Arab states of the Persian Gulf to refer to the body water internationally known as the Persian Gulf.
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