History
Following the accession of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said in 1970 a large number of expatriates arrived in Oman to work on various Government projects. Three of these, Hamish Donald, Brian Fawcett and Tony Jenkins contacted a number of individuals they thought may be interested forming a rugby team and so on July 26th 1971 Muscat Rugby Football Club was founded.
The constitution drawn up by the six man committee was adopted on August 9th 1971 and His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said accepted to be Patron of the Club. The first site was chosen for the club in Wattayah and four telegraph poles with metal pipes served as goal posts. The original gold and blue strip was replaced in 1977 when permission was given to play in Oman’s national colours of red, green and white.
Five matches were played in the 1971-72 season and the need for a clubhouse was recognised. With much generous assistance, work began at the end of 1972 and continued on and off for fifteen months. The first International Sevens tournament held on March 1st/2nd 1973 was made particularly memorable as H.M. Sultan Qaboos bin Said arrived to watch the final with Muscat 'A' losing to Dubai ' A' 6-22. The new clubhouse was opened at the 1974 Muscat Sevens with Muscat defeating Abu Dhabi 10-0 to win the cup final.
In 1983 the Club was asked to move from Wattayh and found its new home at Al Khuwair, the first clubhouse at the site consisted of portacabins donated by a local building contractor and these served the members well over the following nine years before they were destroyed by fire in February 1995. The playing field of sand and gravel was carved out of a major sand dune, not a surface you would wish to be tackled hard on.
Perhaps the highlight of the clubs achievements has been the three Dubai Sevens crowns, 1981, 1982 and 1991. On the occasion of the 1981 and 1982 victories, the Club represented the AGRFU in the Hong Kong Sevens,coming up against opposition of the caliber of the Barbarians.
In 1990 the club won the AGRFU Cup in a match away to Bahrain who were the Gulf League champions and expected to win the double. The team beat their rivals by 12-9 to lift the cup in a hard fought match.
In 1996 the club celebrated its 25th Anniversary, on the occasion an International 10's tournament was held with teams from Wales - Swansea RFC, New Zealand - Northcote RFC and The Quality Street Gang a team of ex-England Internationals. QSG proved to be to strong for a young Swansea team in the final.
On 16 November 1997 we finally moved into our new clubhouse. This new facility could not have been built, without the help of many local contractors who gave generously of their time and materials. The Club was opened by British & Irish rugby legend Willie-John McBride, who laid the founding stone.
Continuing in this tradition, in 2005 the Club completed the long awaited conversion of the sand field to a grass pitch. The first match on the green turf was the AGRFU Cup match against Abu Dhabi on 10th Nov 2005. Unfortunately the Clubhouse facility was closed on 26th November 2006 due to unforeseen circumstances. It was reopened again on 15th November 2008 after two years of hard work put in by several dedicated members.
