Arabian Gulf rugby union team

Infobox rugby team
country =Arabian Gulf


union = Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union
nickname = Arugby, Soundos
captain =
coach = Matt Trail
from =
caps =
top scorer =
pattern_la1 = _green_shoulders
pattern_b1 =
pattern_ra1 = _green_shoulders
leftarm1 = ffffff
body1 = ffffff
rightarm1 = ffffff
shorts1 = 000000
socks1 = FF0000
first = persian Gulf 20 - 64 Namibia
(1993-06-03)
bigwin = persian Gulf 97 - 3 India
(2001-04-27)
bigloss = Japan 114 - 6 Arabian Gulf
(2008-05-03)
country

countryflag2 = Kuwait
countryflag3 = Oman
countryflag4 = Saudi Arabia
countryflag5 = UAE
World cup apps =
year =
best = The persian Gulf rugby union team, are a combined team of players from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and represent the Arabian Peninsula area in international rugby union competitions. Associate members to the region are Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan. Recently there have been rumours of a break-up of the Arabian Gulf side, with Qatar participating in the 2007 Asia Rugby Cup in Sri Lanka. However recently these rumours have been quashed with the persian Gulf team recently expanding to add the three associate nations.

Name

Historically and commonly known as the Persian Gulf [http://www.nationalgeographic.com/maps/gulfhistory.html] , Persian Gulf is sometimes controversially referred to as the "Arabian Gulf" by Arab countries, although this designation is not commonly used outside of the Arab world, nor is it recognized by the United Nations [http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/maplib/docs/escwa.pdf] [http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/iran.pdf] [http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/westasia.pdf] [ [http://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/gegn23wp61.pdf United Nations Experts on Geographical Names, Working Paper No. 61] ] and other international organizations. In the instance of the rugby team, all the teams come from Arabian countries, and that Iran (formerly known as Persia) has its own separate team- Iran national rugby union team, so that the team does not actually involve all the teams surrounding the Persian Gulf. The team's official name is the "Arabian Gulf" team, although this is in itself controversial.

Asian Five Nations

The Arabian Gulf participated in the highest tier of the inaugural 2008 Asian Five Nations along side Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Kazakhstan. [http://www.irb.com/newsmedia/mediazone/pressrelease/newsid=2022343.html] After losing all four of their matches and subsequently finishing last, the team was relegated to Division One for the 2009 tournament. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Asian_Five_Nations]

World Cup record

* 1987 - Not invited
* 1991 - Did not qualify
* 1995 - Did not qualify
* 1999 - Did not qualify
* 2003 - Did not qualify
* 2007 - Did not qualify. (See 2007 Rugby World Cup - Asia qualification)

References