Tunisia win third Arab 7s title

Tunisia – the only Arab nation to have competed in the World Series – unsurprisingly won their third Arab 7s title on Saturday.

The fourth Arab 7s was held in Taif this weekend. The largest tournament to date - eight teams – it is  rare example of a cross-regional tournament (with teams from Asia and Africa) and this year’s was not only the first major rugby tournament held in Saudi Arabia, it also featured the home nation’s international debut.

The Saudi rugby federation was relaunched only last year and is part of an attempt by the country to diversify into new areas such as sport as the world moves away from oil. A major target for the new

It is an ambitious target. Saudi Arabia are following in the footsteps on the United Arab Emirates who have just won promotion to the top tier of Asian rugby. But it has taken the UAE 11 years to get there, and that despite making full use of the country’s ex-pat community that is much larger than that available to Saudi. The UAE also won two matches in their ever tournament, whereas Saudi this weekend failed to score a point.

The UAE are also a major force in Arab 7s. One of only three countries to have played in all four editions (Syria and Egypt being the other two), they finished third in 2021 and 2022, and runners-up last year and this.

The won their pool on Day One, only being troubled by Egypt in the final game. Both side had qualified for the semi-finals by that point, and the only benefit from winning was to avoid Tunisia.

Tunisia are on another level from other Arab rugby nations. Having made their sevens debut in 2004  - five years before any of their opponents – they had played more sevens internationals, before the start of this tournament, than all of their opponents put together.

Having missed the 2021 competition, they first competed in 2022 and had never lost a game before this year – and they still haven’t.

This year they reached the final without conceding a point, and beat the UAE even more comfortably than last year – in fact the 1-2-3-4 was the same as in 2023.

Results

Pool A: Jordan 5-12 Syria; Tunisia 69-0 Saudi Arabia; Saudi Arabia 0-39 Syria; Jordan 0-38 Tunisia; Saudi Arabia 0-48 Jordan; Syria 0-52 Tunisia

Pool B: Libya 0-32 Egypt; Lebanon 0-29 United Arab Emirates; Lebanon 5-34 Egypt; Libya 0-26 United Arab Emirates; Libya 0-34 Lebanon; Egypt 12-17 United Arab Emirates

5th-8th Place Semi Finals: Jordan 21-0 Libya; Saudi Arabia 0-50 Lebanon

Semi-Finals: Egypt 0-45 Tunisia; Syria 0-29 United Arab Emirates

7th Place: Libya 22-0 Saudi Arabia

5th Place: Jordan 5-24 Lebanon

3rd Place: Egypt 34-0 Syria

Final: Tunisia 33-5 United Arab Emirates