Sam Bolger scored a memorable hat-trick as Abu Dhabi Harlequins retained their Dubai Rugby Sevens Gulf Men’s League crown with a convincing 36-14 win against Al Ain Amblers.
Seeds of hope were planted early on by the men from the Garden City after they took the lead in the final through Watisoni Vatunitu’s try, but Bolger replied with three straight scores before the break to put Mike McFarlane’s men in control.
They were out of sight when William Umu and Max Trimble added to the tally in the second half and even though Sakiusa Naisau grabbed a late consolation for Amblers, Ashby Williams cemented Quins’ status as domestic sevens kings with his side’s sixth try.
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Quins skipper Ben Bolger said retaining their Gulf Men’s League trophy is just the first step of their plan to dominate the rugby landscape in the UAE in 2015-16.
“It’s big to retain the title,” said Bolger. “It was one of our goals at the start of the season. Every time that we go out we always want to win it, so it’s great. We want to win every competition we’re in.”
He reserved praise for Al Ain who have put a difficult start to the 15s season aside and started the sevens campaign on fire, winning the first round of the Eden Park 7s two weeks ago.
“They had us on the ropes for the first few minutes but we’ve done a lot of work. We stayed in our systems and we backed ourselves and we came out of it in the end,” he added.
“We knew they were always going to come out firing and they’re the kind of team that can score quickly.
“They score one then they can score three because they’re great at offloading and have great feet. But, defensively after that we were very good.”
With players returning from injury, Bolger insisted Quins were always confident.
“It was a matter of just getting 12 fit players together,” he said.
“We have this one club mentality. If we can get 12 blokes and a squad together we knew it would be ok because it’s the same ethos throughout the club.”
Sam’s beaming smile after the final will probably not disappear for a few days following a man-of-the-match display.
“I won’t let him (brother Ben) forget it (the hat-trick), it’s been a good day,” he said.
“We had a slow start and we took time to regroup. We had a hard run-in and Al Ain are a good team so to beat them is good and Exiles was a tough semi-final so to win it is great.”
