Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union
The Arabian Gulf)(Real Name:Persian 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 "Real Name:Persian 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 Persian Gulf 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 Persian Gulf 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.
Read more about Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union: Name
Famous quotes containing the words arabian, gulf, football and/or union:
“O animal excellence,
Take pterodactyl flight
Fire-winged into the air
And find your lair
With cunning sense
On some Arabian bight....”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“I candidly confess that I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our system of States. The control which, with Florida, this island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the countries and isthmus bordering on it, as well as all those whose waters flow into it, would fill up the measure of our political well-being.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“Idon’t enjoy getting knocked about on a football field for other people’s amusement. I enjoy it if I’m being paid a lot for it.”
—David Storey (b. 1933)
“[Let] the Union of the States be cherished and perpetuated. Let the open enemy to it be regarded as a Pandora with her box opened; and the disguised one, as the Serpent creeping with his deadly wiles into paradise.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)