The Roelof Kotze era may be over but he believes he heads back to South Africa with the UAE experiencing a more positive attitude towards rugby and the national team heading in the right direction.
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Kotze insists it is imperative the nation now pushes forward and does not take a backward step following his 22 months as the UAE’s performance manager.
With the national 15s team coming within a point of winning Division II of the Asia Rugby Championship in May, the sevens squad claiming a coveted place in the top eight Asian nations earlier this month and progress being made with the development of Emiratis, Kotze is satisfied with his accomplishments.
He says his successor, the UAE Rugby Federation and the players involved in the national team set-up, however, should not rest on their laurels.
“Just because I’m leaving, it doesn’t mean the UAE have to go backwards. It’s very important that doesn’t happen,” said Kotze, who departed last week to take up his new role as amateur rugby manager for the Currie Cup Premier Division Pumas, based in Nelspruit.
“We don’t have to go backwards, we can go forwards and keep getting better. That’s what I said when we came back from Malaysia. I think the ship is turning and players are keen to get back on board and be involved with UAE rugby again.
“We proved that again with the sevens. They came out in force to play and really committed.
“When I look back I would probably say that ‘satisfied’ is the right word. We set goals for ourselves and achieved most of them. You have to be thankful and happy.”
In Kuala Lumpur in May, only the width of a post prevented the UAE from beating Malaysia, Hassan Al Noobi’s effort striking an upright as the tournament hosts claimed a narrow 20-19 win. The UAE had beaten Thailand 53-22 and Chinese Taipei 16-12 to restore pride following their relegation the previous season.
In sevens, the team picked themselves up off the canvas having finished dead last of 12 teams in 2014 by rising up to finish seventh overall in the Asia Sevens Series and claim a spot as one of the core eight nations for 2016.
“In 15s we said we wanted to be seriously competitive in the Asia Rugby Championship, which we were,” said Kotze. “We wanted to win Division II which we didn’t achieve, but we got within one point of it.
“In sevens we said we wanted to be in the top eight of Aisa and we did that.”
He admitted the Pumas job perhaps came a year earlier than he would have liked, but said he leaves the UAE in the very capable hands of former Samoan dual code international Apollo Perelini.
“The timing is not exactly the best,” he said. “Next year would have been the optimum time, so that is the sad part of leaving now, but I had to make a decision.
“What we’ve done with Apollo taking charge of the 15s, that shouldn’t disrupt them because he and I have the same outlook on the game and how we want it to be played. I think that’s why we worked well together.
“There will be a few tweaks but in principle the system will stay the same. It will go from strength to strength I’m sure.
“Pretty much the same applies with the sevens. They won’t be starting from scratch again, so that will be good.”
Kotze also sees a bright future for rugby among locals, with firm structures in place for the Shaheen programme.
“We’ve formalised and entered them into a league, we’ve now got a vehicle where we can develop them,” added Kotze. “The numbers are growing every day. Maybe in a year or two we’ll have two Shaheen teams because there will be enough players.”
