CAIRO: Ask regulars at your local ahwa, or coffee shop, if they know what rugby is and you may get someone describing American football to you, or, more likely, someone will engage you about whether you follow Ahly or Zamalek. Although few have heard of rugby here in Egypt, the sport is gathering a growing number of followers. Tomorrow sees the start of the Egyptian rugby season, with Alexandria Rugby Club taking on the AUC Wolves in the first match of the Egyptian league 2009, now in its second season. Both teams will be aiming to challenge Cairo Rugby Club, who dominated last year’s inaugural league competition. Rugby isn’t new to Egypt. A group of expats founded Cairo Rugby in 1980, but it is only recently that people have started to really take notice. In 2003, Egypt’s second club was founded in Alexandria, and in 2007 the American University in Cairo (AUC) also decided to get in on the action. The three teams now battle it out in the local league and frequently participate in international competitions at home and abroad, with annual competitions held in Alexandria, Damascus, Beirut and Dubai. The teams also frequently play matches against teams touring the region, with recent visitors including the Fijian and British armed forces. It’s not just men who are getting involved, either. Egypt’s first representation at the international level was the women’s team, who travelled to Ghana in June to participate in the North African Women’s Rugby Sevens. The men will now look to follow in their female counterparts’ footsteps, with the selection and training process for the men’s national team starting over the coming months, with a view to a first international match before the end of the season. According to Shady Ahmed, team manager and senior player at Alexandria RFC, rugby in Egypt has come a long way over the last five years. “When we started in Alex, we hardly had enough players for a team and almost everyone was an expat. Now we have 80 guys and girls regularly turning up for training, almost everyone [is] Egyptian. We’re looking at taking rugby into schools and developing the game at a grass-roots level,†he says. This crop of talented and enthusiastic young players, combined with improved organization and administration following the establishment of the Egyptian Rugby Football Union last year, means the future is bright for rugby in Egypt. “In 5 or 10 years, who knows how far we can take it? I dream of seeing an Egyptian team at the World Cup one day,†adds Ahmed. Matches schedule for tomorrow:    2pm – Women’s Sevens 4pm – Men’s 15s – AUC Wolves vs. Alexandria RFC Matches to be played at the AUC sports complex in Cairo. Bikya Masr will follow this year’s league and tournaments, providing match reports and results BM
