Defending champions Bahrain will launch their West Asia Premiership rugby title defence today with their opening game of the 2023-24 season against the visiting Doha Rugby Football Centre (Doha RFC) team at the Bahrain Rugby Football Club (BRFC).
Bahrain are seeking a record fourth championship trophy on the trot after completing a hat-trick of title triumphs in the 2022-23 season.
And the hosts limbered up for today’s encounter in great style last Friday with a 40-0 thrashing of Doha RFC in a pre-season friendly game at the same venue.
“It’s great to be playing rugby again!” BRFC chairman Mike Cunningham told the GDN.
“The start of a new season is always exciting. There are going to be lots of new opportunities for the lads but there will also be lots of challenges to face ahead. It’s going to be a tough campaign for the guys.
“Two new teams have re-joined the Premiership for this season so the competition is growing and the standard of the tournament gets better every year, when every team has had a rebuild, every team has trained hard.
“I know the Bahrain first team really worked very, very hard in the off-season to rebuild. But we’ve also lost a few notable players, particularly the likes of Ollie Sanson, who’s been a stalwart in our front row for many, many years. He’s now left us so it’s a tough position to replace, but we’ve rebuilt.”
Doha and the Dubai Hurricanes are the two returning teams, having missed the 2022-23 season for different reasons, taking the number of teams participating in this year’s Premiership to seven – up from five last year when Dubai Tigers, Dubai Exiles, Jebel Ali Dragons and Abu Dhabi Harlequins competed in the league, along with Bahrain.
“We’re very excited to play the first game of the new season against Doha today,” Bahrain captain Alastair Crombie told the GDN.
“The boys have been working very hard for the past month or so in the pre-season and all of them are now itching to just get out there, get that first game under our belts and show what we can do in front of, hopefully, a big home crowd.”
But, Crombie added, his team would not make the mistake of thinking that Doha were going to be push-overs after the lop-sided result of the friendly game last week.
“We definitely won’t underestimate them,” he stressed.
“Of course, we probably did get the better of them in the pre-season friendly but we’re well aware things can be very different in competitive rugby. We’re fully expecting them to come out fighting with a lot of passion and we’re going to have to be up for it to match them.”
Cunningham agreed, saying he also expected Doha to come back harder in the season-opener with crucial league points at stake.
“We may have had that fantastic result against Doha last weekend but we’re sure they’re going to come back much stronger today and go for the win,” he said.
“These are league points, the competition’s on and we expect it to be really tough this year so hopefully the guys will do well today and get the season off to a good start. I’m sure they will.”
The game will kick off at 5pm, Bahrain time.
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