MRFC Touch tournament tomorrow

Tomorrow between 10am and 1pm at the ABA rugby pitch, there is the annual MRFC touch rugby tournament. It's fun because each team must have a child and a woman playing at all times, meaning the teams are a lot more unpredictable! Here's a link to the Facebook event page.

Also, the MRFC ball this year is on Thursday 2nd May this year, tickets are RO 45 for non-members and RO 40 for members, all inclusive dinner and drinks. Contact details are in the poster above.

Have a good weekend, and for those going to Akon - enjoy!

le fin.

MRFC Charity Bowling competition tonight

Tonight sees the first ever MRFC Charity Bowling competition. The charity is the Association for Early Intervention for Children with Disabilities. It's on in the Star Bowling Center on Monday the 11th of March at 7.30pm sharp. It's in the same building as the ice rink in Qurum.

The cost will be 5Rial. This includes a donation to the charity and money for a cash prize for the winner. The winner will be the person who scores the highest points. Please feel free to invite as many people as possible.

More later!

le fin.

MRFC family fun day

On Thursday 28th February from 10am until 1pm, there is the annual MRFC family fun day. This year it is in partnership with the Association of Early Intervention for children with disabilities, a very worthwhile charitable organization here in Oman.

Teams of 10 (mixed between adults and kids) can be registered for RO 30 per team with the proceeds going to Charity. This is a great fun few hours and also for a good cause as well.

For more information, email either John or Ross.

le fin.

MRFC v Dubai Wasps this Friday at 3pm

This Friday, local rugby team, Muscat RFC, will play the Dubai Wasps in the third of their series of games to retain the Gulf Conference Cup that MRFC won last year.

The game is being held here in Muscat at the ABA rugby ground in Al Khuwair this Friday at 3pm.

Why not come on down and support your local rugby team.... they've been winning a lot lately and all the support they get is more than welcome!

As usual, post match refreshments shall be held in the adopted club house, the Habana Sports bar at the Grand Hyatt.

le fin.

Six Nations rugby starts today!

Avid rugby fans will probably already know that today marks the start of the 2013 Six Nations rugby tournament

The games are all being shown on Al Jazeera Sports, and all of them will be shown live at the adopted MRFC clubhouse, Habana Sports Bar.

WALES V IRELAND Sat 2 Feb 17:30 Millennium Stadium
ENGLAND V SCOTLAND Sat 2 Feb 20:00 Twickenham
ITALY V FRANCE Sun 3 Feb 19:00 Stadio Olimpico
SCOTLAND V ITALY Sat 9 Feb 18:30 Murrayfield
FRANCE V WALES Sat 9 Feb 21:00 Stade de France
IRELAND V ENGLAND Sun 10 Feb 19:00 Aviva Stadium
ITALY V WALES Sat 23 Feb 18:30 Stadio Olimpico
ENGLAND V FRANCE Sat 23 Feb 21:00 Twickenham
SCOTLAND V IRELAND Sun 24 Feb 18:00 Murrayfield
SCOTLAND V WALES Sat 9 Mar 18:30 Murrayfield
IRELAND V FRANCE Sat 9 Mar 21:00 Aviva Stadium
ENGLAND V ITALY Sun 10 Mar 19:00 Twickenham
ITALY V IRELAND Sat 16 Mar 18:30 Stadio Olimpico
WALES V ENGLAND Sat 16 Mar 21:00 Millennium Stadium
FRANCE V SCOTLAND Sat 16 Mar 24:00 Stade de France

My moneys on England!

le fin.

MRFC v Abu Dhabi Saracens this Friday

This Friday, local rugby team, Muscat RFC, will play the Abu Dhabi Saracens in the second of their series of games to retain the Gulf Conference Cup that MRFC won last year.

The game is being held here in Muscat at the ABA rugby ground in Al Khuwair this Friday at 3pm.

Why not come on down and support your local rugby team.... they've been winning a lot lately and all the support they get is more than welcome!

As usual, post match refreshments shall be held in the adopted club house, the Habana Sports bar at the Grand Hyatt.

le fin.

Happy 5th Birthday to HiFM and well done MRFC

I hope you all had a great 3 day weekend?

A tip of the hat to Hi FM for hitting 5 years in Oman since starting their live broadcasts - in those 5 years I think they've gone from strength to strength, and even with the launch of new competition, they have retained their position in the market as the No. 1 radio station in town, winning awards as well.

Also, this weekend, the Muscat Rugby Club mens 1st XV went up to play Doha in the first of the Gulf Conference Cup defence games Muscat will be playing in the next couple of months. They secured a victory of 17 to Doha's 12. Muscat won by scoring 2 tries (both by Connor Quaid) which were converted, as well as a penalty kick too.

More soon.

le fin.

Muscat RFC v Bahrain RFC this Friday

After 2 away games in Qatar and Bahrain, the MRFC 1st XV are playing at home this weekend against Bahrain. They had a few immigration issues at the border with Bahrain and subsequently lost a few players before even taking the field in Bahrain, and so they are looking to get even this weekend.

The game kicks off on Friday at 4pm at the rugby pitch in al Khuwair near to the ABA school.

There is a facebook group for MRFC here, and a website here.

le fin.

McDonalds Family Fridays & MRFC v Kuwait

Today's quite a busy day, with the Red Bull world cliff diving finals going on down in Tiwi, and the Proclaimers gig at the InterCon tonight as well.

Thanks to Fatima from Mild &Wild for the picture

Tomorrow sees the launch of McDonalds "A day offline" campaign which is angled at promoting family time. The Darsait branch will have "exciting in-store entertainment and activities from 4pm until 7pm". Well now you know.

Also tomorrow, at 4pm is the official start to the Muscat Rugby Football Club's season with a home game against Kuwait. The game will take place at the MRFC field next to the ABA school, with post-match festivities at the Habana bar.

Enjoy the weekend.

le fin.

AWG's art show, Sir Ian McGeechan and Red Bull

There's a few little bits and pieces going on this week and coming weekend around town so I thought I'd share some of the events I know about...

Starting tomorrow the American Womens Group and Omantel are hosting an art show in the new Omantel HQ offices in the middle of nowhere Maweleh. Here's the blurb:

Omantel and the American Women's Group present the AWG Mona Lisa Art Club's exhibition:
'Muscat Mosaic - Together with Colour'

Opening ceremony 24th September at 11:00am at Omantel's Head offices Maweleh. Featuring 30 club artist with special guest artists from the Omani Society for Fine Arts.

Exhibition will run from 24th to 26th 11:00am - 4:00pm at Omantel Head Office. Exhibition is free. Please come and join us!

------


Next up, the Muscat Pirates youth rugby training season is now under way with training on Sundays (for U6, U8 and U10s) and Mondays for U12s and above. Training for Under 6's is 5-6pm on Sundays and other ages training on both days will be from 5-6.30pm.  I understand that they have a game here in Muscat on Thursday 11th October.

------

The MRFC Mens 1st XV train every Sunday (from 6:30) and Tuesday (from 8:00) evenings and have their first home game this Friday against Kuwait RFC. Confidence is running high after the pre-season warm-up game against HMS Sutherland was won 38-7. The game kicks off at the MRFC pitch next to the ABA school in Al Khuwair this Friday at 3pm. Post match celebrations will take place in Muscat's premier sports bar, Habana Sports Bar at the Grand Hyatt, Muscat.

And finally with the rugby side of things, on Wednesday 3rd October at the Grand Hyatt, Muscat, Sir Ian McGeechan and John Bentley are coming for an entertaining dinner, along with a comedian, Gary Marshall. Tickets are RO 45 a pop which includes a 3 course dinner and selected drinks.

The event is a fund-raiser for Leed’s Rugby ‘Changing Lives through Sport’ initiative. Their website is here.

Sir Ian McGeechan is Executive Chairman of Leeds rugby and John Bentley is their Business Development Manager.

Sir Ian is best known for his association with the British and Irish Lions Rugby team, playing in 1974 and 1977 against South Africa and New Zealand and as coach in 1989 in Australia, 1993 in New Zealand and 1997 in South Africa. He returned as Coach for the trip to South Africa in 2009. He has held various Coaching positions in UK, including Director of Rugby in Scotland. He played his club rugby for Headingley which merged with Roundhay to form Leeds RFC.

John Bentley played Rugby League for Great Britain and Rugby Union for England and was a member of the British and Irish Lions touring party to South Africa in 1997 and played in the 2nd Test.

Sir Ian McGeechan and John Bentley are visiting the Middle East and will speak at events in Doha, Muscat, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The event in Muscat is being arranged in conjunction with Muscat RFC and  Muscat RFC will receive some of the proceeds to support rugby in Oman.

If you would like to attend this event please drop either John (2458 4820 / mjp0610@gmail.com ) or Ross (9327 7414 / rolocky@hotmail.com ) a line and they will hook you up.

------

Already blogged about this, but thought I'd mention it again: The Red Bull cliff diving world finals are taking place in Wadi Shab (Tiwi) this weekend. Click here for more information on that, I'd recommend leaving early to get a decent rock to sit on and watch the lunatics divers perform.

And of course, this weekend also sees the return of The Proclaimers at the InterCon gardens. I'm currently running a competition to give away 2 tickets to see them for free - click here for more info.

And tomorrow (Monday) night see's another instalment of Andy Pyzer's pub quiz at the Copacabana club in the Hyatt.It starts at 8:30pm and runs for about 2.5 hours. More details on that here.

Thats all for now.

le fin.

Weekend activities & the Muscat Singers

Well there are two outdoor activities going on this weekend, both involving water, albeit of different types....

Oman Sail are having a "public beach sailing event" on both Thursday and Friday between 10:30am and 5:30pm. At the event you can have a go at sailing, watch people kite surf, enjoy some children's activities, and by far most importantly as far as I'm concerned, enjoy free banana boat rides. Very exciting, I do enjoy going on banana boats.

Now, the other type of water involved with an outdoor activity is the kind that is in the swimming pool at the Grand Hyatt, Muscat. The MRFC and the Grand Hyatt are throwing another "Rat Pack" afternoon in the pool with specials on cocktails and beers. I also do enjoy their swim up bar at the Marjan, delightfully deadly I think best describes it.

Rehearsals for the Winter Concert began on September 15th at TAISM in Azaiba and continue every Saturday from 7.30 until 9.30pm. The Winter Concert will take place early in December and will feature festive music including A Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten.

Newcomers are very welcome and need only have a passion for singing and some musical ability. We are especially looking for male voices to compliment our ensemble.

The Muscat Singers is Oman’s long-standing expatriate community choir. They were established in 1974 and have been entertaining audiences in Oman with regular concerts since the 1990s. They regularly hold a festive winter concert in December and a spring concert just before the summer break. The concerts are held in the Bosch Center for the Performing Arts at TAISM, a state of the art concert theatre that seats 520.

Visit muscatsingers.org or facebook.com/muscatsingers or contact 9557 4887 (pm only) for more information.

More soon.

le fin.

MRFC have 1st home game tonight

Muscat RFC have their first home game of the season this evening against a visiting Royal Navy team. After a brief summer break, the MRFC squad started it's fitness campaign on the 1st of July with twice-weekly fitness drills through the hot summer months. Update... game postponed until tomorrow night (Wednesday) at 6:30 due to the Navy being delayed.

This first game is a friendly and will hopefully help the squad get some match exposure after being off the pitch for a few months. MRFC's first league match is later this month at home against Kuwait on the 29th September.

Kick off tonight is at 6:30, with post-match dinner and drinks being held in the adoptive clubhouse, Habana Bar at the Grand Hyatt, Muscat's Safari complex. Anyone is welcome to come along and watch the game and have a drink with the guys afterwards in the pub. The match takes place on the MRFC pitch, next to the ABA school in Al Khuwair. Here's a map to the grounds (click to make it bigger):

Also, in case you missed it, MRFC have social memberships with some pretty sweet benefits available if you are interested, click here for more information.

le fin.

MRFC social memberships

Hi everyone, it's Saturday, which means for most of us it's the start of the work week, and I think the schools have started up (or are just about to start up) for the new year. I blogged about this particular item previously, but just wanted to re-post the information now that more people are back in town after their summer holidays abroad.

Muscat RFC have signed a deal with the Grand Hyatt, Muscat for all MRFC members. The benefits are substantial, and the cost is RO 40 for the year from today, September 1st, to August 31st 2013, (or RO 80 for a family membership). For those members who find they like these benefits, the good news is we've signed the deal through 2014, so you can renew again next year too!

Here is a list of all the benefits:

• Habana Bar:
• 40% off drinks until 22.00 and a 20% discount on all beverage consumptions after 22.00.
• Safari Rooftop and Safari pub:
• 10% discount
• 20% discount on food & beverages in the following outlets:
  
  • Tuscany Italian Restaurant
  • Mokha Café
  • Sirj Tea Lounge
  • John Barry Bar
  • Marjan Indonesian Restaurant & Pool Bar
  • Copacabana Nightclub
• Pool Access is as follows:
• Free pool access until 30 September 2012, any day.
• 01 October 2012 until 30 April 2013, free pool access during weekdays (Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday); 50% discount on any other day.
• 01 May 2013 until 30 September 2013, any day.
• 01 October 2013 until 30 April 2014, free pool access during weekdays (Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday); 50% discount on any other day.
• 01 May 2014 until 31 July 2014, any day.
• Blackout dates due to high occupancy are: 22 December 2012 to 11 January 2013 (both days inclusive) Eid or any other Public Holidays in between 01 October 2012 and 30 April 2013
• Advantage Membership Program:
• MRFC members get a discount of 25% when purchasing the Advantage membership.
• Rooms at the Hyatt:
• The hotel offers a special rate for MRFC members for a Grand Room of OR 50.000 (Omani Rial Fifty) plus service charge and tax (RO. 58.700) room only for single or double occupancy. Only available on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
• Club Olympus Membership:
• 40% Discount on any Club Olympus Membership for any MRFC member.

As you can see, quite an awesome deal! The reason why the MRFC are doing this is, rugby in the GCC is expensive. An away game consists of return travel for 22 players plus coaches, accommodation costs and travel costs in the other country. Add to that the cost of keeping a pitch green in this climate, and a whole other host of costs, it all adds up to a very large amount of money. So not only will you be getting yourself (or your family) a sweet deal with the Grand Hyatt, Muscat, you will also be helping support one of the oldest rugby club's in the GCC in it's new season to retain it's Gulf Conference Cup title (which they won last year).

If you are interested, then drop me an email to mrsythe[at]gmail[dot]com and I'll send you the forms and instructions on how to apply.

le fin.

MRFC starts pre-season fitness training

Here we are, once again arriving at the start of July. 40'c at 6:30pm and 75% humidity? Perfect for pre-season fitness training for the 2011-12 Gulf Conference champions, Muscat Rugby Football Club. Starting tomorrow night, Sunday 1st July, and every Sunday and Tuesday thereafter until mid September, the MRFC squad will be under the direction of Steven Little, from Muscat's premier cross-fit trainers, Muscat Innerfight.

So if you are feeling the strain from the Muscat summer inches phenomenon which seems to happen once it gets too hot to do anything other than drive to and from air conditioned places and waistlines expand, why not consider coming down and joining in with the misery fun of pre-season fitness with the rugby team.

This map shows where the MRFC grass pitch is (although it is closed until September) as well as the ABA School. The summer fitness sessions take place on the astroturf tennis courts by the entrance to the ABA school every Sunday and Tuesday from 6:30pm.

As an aside, the MRFC are now selling Social memberships to the MRFC. These social memberships cost RO 40 and the fees will go towards paying the ever-increasing transportation costs to attend matches across the GCC. Now the MRFC don't expect you to hand over RO 40 for just the goodwill of the club, and so we have negotiated with the lovely people at the Hyatt the following deal for all MRFC members (playing or social):

• Habana Bar:
• 40% off drinks until 22.00 and a 20% discount on all beverage consumptions after 22.00.
• Safari Rooftop and Safari pub:
• 10% discount
• 20% discount on food & beverages in the following outlets:
  
  • Tuscany Italian Restaurant
  • Mokha Café
  • Sirj Tea Lounge
  • John Barry Bar
  • Marjan Indonesian Restaurant & Pool Bar
  • Copacabana Nightclub
• Pool Access is as follows:
• Free pool access until 30 September 2012, any day.
• 01 October 2012 until 30 April 2013, free pool access during weekdays (Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday); 50% discount on any other day.
• 01 May 2013 until 30 September 2013, any day.
• 01 October 2013 until 30 April 2014, free pool access during weekdays (Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday); 50% discount on any other day.
• 01 May 2014 until 31 July 2014, any day.
• Blackout dates due to high occupancy are: 22 December 2012 to 11 January 2013 (both days inclusive) Eid or any other Public Holidays in between 01 October 2012 and 30 April 2013
• Advantage Membership Program:
• MRFC members get a discount of 25% when purchasing the Advantage membership.
• Rooms at the Hyatt:
• The hotel offers a special rate for MRFC members for a Grand Room of OR 50.000 (Omani Rial Fifty) plus service charge and tax (OR 58.700NET) room only for single or double occupancy. Only available on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
• Club Olympus Membership:
• 40% Discount on any Club Olympus Membership for any MRFC member.

Yes, you read that right: Free pool access to the Hyatt pool. For RO 40 a year as a MRFC member. That sure beats the RO 600 price tag that comes with the InterCon pool membership.....

If you would like to sign up as a social member, and get access to these great perks, as well as support rugby in Muscat, please do drop me an email: mrsythe [at] gmail.com.

le fin.

le weekend

Well it's Wednesday once again, which for most of us means... its nearly the weekend!

First up, this morning was the transit of Venus in front of the sun. I heard on Oman FM yesterday afternoon an interview with the guy who curates the PDO Planetarium (currently being refurbished) who said that this morning would give us  the chance to see this phenomenon, that happens twice, 8 years apart, every 120 or so years. It last happened 8 years ago, and so the next time it will happen, we'll all be dead.

I saw this picture of the transit posted on the twitter:

Thanks to fatewm of the blog Live From Muscat for the picture!

Moving on, tomorrow at noon is the rather suitably timed I-Care initiative. essentially this is a gathering in Wizarat at the car park near to the Ministry of Housing at 12:00.

Here's what the blurb says on Facebook:

The gathering you've all be waiting for.. Are you guys ready for another awesome one? Well, here it is! Join us on Thursday to distribute cold bottles of water to construction workers and bring along your friends, family, and your SMILE! Yalla! What are we going to do? - Make sure you confirm your attendance and inform everyone you know. Invite everyone to make sure we distribute as many bottles as possible. - Gathering at 12:00 PM. (Make sure you make it on time) - Collecting your contributions to buy water bottles. - Bring an ice box with you if you have one to make sure that the water is cold. - We will be providing you with directions of the targeted areas. - You can either join any of the groups or drive around by yourself. - Distribute with a SMILE. - Go back to the meeting point and share experiences. Just like our previous gatherings, you will get to experience distributing cold water bottles to construction workers, collecting smiles and meeting amazing people. Please confirm your attendance; it is going to be fun! See you soon! ------ Given that it is ridiculously hot and humid outside today, why don't you consider helping out tomorrow? Whether you turn up and help distribute bottles of water, or donate some boxes of water, or even cash to buy water - have a thought for those less fortunate than you and help out. This is a rare opportunity to donate to a charity that does not take "administrative fees" - 100% of what you donate will go to helping laborers around Muscat cool off for at least a few minutes. And it's not just the water, it's showing these people that they are not totally disregarded and that people do care for them - I'm sure that in itself will help a lot of them in this horrendous heat. After working up a sweat with the water-giving, I plan to check-in at the Hyatt for the weekend & attend the Muscat Rugby Football Club's Oval Ball, which is the only event worth mentioning for the Thursday evening :) Then on Friday at 5pm Oman kicks off at home (in the Bowsher stadium) to Australia's Socceroos in their bid to get into the World Cup - the pressure is really on after their loss to Japan 3-0 last week. Tickets are still on sale should you wish to go. Friday also sees the start of the Euro's football tournament, with the first game kicking off at 8pm with Poland V Greece, followed at 10:45pm with Russia v Czech Republic. Most of the bars around town are showing the Euro matches, but my pick of the bunch is of course the MRFC's adoptive bar, the Habana Sports bar. Really no other bar even comes close for sports coverage in the Capital, and with pints at RO 2.380, its amongst the cheapest pint in Muscat to boot.  le fin.

Muscat Rugby club's Oval Ball tickets now on sale

Hope you all had a nice weekend :)

The MRFC are having their annual ball this year in the Afrah ballroom, Grand Hyatt. Tickets are RO 40 for members, and RO 45 for non-members - pretty much the cheapest ball ticket of the year. Standard ball fare applies - sit down dinner and open bar. It all starts at 7pm on Thursday 7th June

If you are interested in tickets, drop me an email and I'll put you in touch with the right people, or just call / email any of the people listed on the poster above.

As it happens, MRFC are playing HMS Westminster tomorrow evening at 7pm on the ABA rugby pitch, with after game celebrations held in the club's adoptive home, the Habana bar & the Hyatt.

More soon.

le fin.

The Hunger Games, and rugby.

Finally, today, at 9:30 and 11:00 the Shatti City Cinema will be screening The Hunger Games. I just read all three of the books in the last week and I gotta say, if the first movie is even half as good as the first book.. it'll be awesome :)

Also, tomorrow from 9am and until 3pm at the ABA rugby pitch in Al Khuwair is the mini rugby tournament. Followed by the MRFC men's playing a team from the French Navy.

Have a nice weekend.

le fin.

This weekend...

There's still a few days to go until we get to the weekend, but there's a lot going on (as seems to be becoming usual) here, so I thought I'd share a few things today instead...

Starting off on Wednesday evening, there is the new band at the Safari bar, Diesel, who will be playing from 9:30 till late. Initial reports are they are pretty good, I'm sure it'll be good to see them.

On Thursday in the day, there is the annual Muscat RFC Fun Day, where you can join Muscat RFC in association with the Association of Early Intervention for children with disabilities on the 8th of March 2012, lots of fun and games for the entire family!!! For more information about it, check out the Facebook event page.

Moving on to Thursday evening, the only thing worth mentioning is the 19th Annual Canadian Stampede party at the Ras Al Hamra club, Qurum. Tickets are totally sold out and you've either got one, or you are going to miss the best party of the year. This year there is Canadian beer, Moosehead, specially imported for the event, along with local Canadian DJ, Marcus Monopoli from Hi FM, thousands and thousands of rials of prizes to be won and perhaps more importantly, an all new Shooter menu for the world famous Golden Garter Saloon. It is the best party of the year - see you there!

Then, on Friday there is the final competitive rugby game of the season against Doha RFC at home at the ABA / MRFC rugby ground in Al Khuwair at 3pm. Come down and support the local team in what is the last game of a very strong season from MRFC.As usual, post match celebrations will be held at the Habana Bar at the Hyatt.

More soon.

le fin.

Busy month

It's been a busy time for me lately, and so this little hobby of mine has had to take a back seat for a while. Trying to post a blog every work-day was fast becoming a chore instead of a pleasure, and so I've take a week out from it, and who knows, perhaps I'll take more time out too.

Tonight see's the second round of the 6 Nations rugby tournament, with England playing Italy at 8pm local time tonight, and then the French take on Ireland at midnight. Both games are supposed to be on Al Jazeera Sports +3, but who knows if they actually will be on. Last Sunday's match between Ireland and Wales was binned in favour of showing a football match that they were showing on another channel already. Morons. To add insult to injury, the football match shown was a goalless draw!

Well, Jazeera Sports permitting, the Muscat Rugby Club's adopted bar, Habana at the Grand Hyatt (its the bar underneath Safari Bar) will be showing all of the games live on a lot of large flat screen TV's dotted around the bar - they even have a tv built into the beer pumps at the bar so when ordering a drink you don't miss anything!

For those of you that are interested, there is the imaginatively named Carlsberger deal - a pint of Carlsberg and a burger for RO 5.5

Staying with sport for a while longer, Oman National Football team has 4 home games this month:

Oman vs Wigan Athletic - 17 Feb - HOME - (Friendly)
Oman vs S. Korea - 22 Feb - HOME - (Qualifier)
Oman vs India - 23 Feb - HOME - (Friendly)
Oman vs Thailand - 29 Feb - HOME - (Qualifier)

So if you like football, you'll have something to watch live here! There is an active facebook page for the team, with lots of special prizes on offer - so go check it out. Most games are free for standard entry and VIP tickets can be purchased for RO 50.

More sometime soon, I recently went to the Millennium resort up in Mussanah, and was very pleasantly surprised.... I'll write about it soon!

le fin.

Muscat Rugby Football Club Gulf Conference Champions

On Thursday evening, MRFC traveled up to Al Ain to play the final of the Gulf Conference league and beat Al Ain 13-11 in a closely fought match in perfect conditions. Muscat took the cup and are the 2011-12 Gulf Conference league champions, something they are very proud of achieving, especially considering the road that was taken to get to the top.

MRFC will now spend the second half of this season playing in the Gulf Premiership with fixtures against Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar.

The sponsors of MRFC are:

DHL
Grand Hyatt Muscat
i2 Offshore
Aggreko
Lufkin
AIL
Muriya - Sifawy hotel
SNR Denton

And also a big thanks to Hi FM for consistently promoting MRFC and the Muscat Pirates youth teams' activities.

If you would like to know more about MRFC, there is a facebook group here, and a website here.

Here's a candid snap of the boys celebrating in the Al Ain Amblers clubhouse:

le fin.