Rory Drummond – Bahrain Director of Rugby – “It’s About Making The Right Noise, The Right Backing, Taking The Opportunity, And Then Delivering”

Rory Drummond moved to Bahrain in 2022 after spending time playing rugby in Scotland, Spain and Hong Kong, and was enticed to move to the country as it started stepping up its rugby development since becoming an Asia Rugby member.

In his current role as Director of Rugby with the Bahrain Rugby Football Union, which he has held since January 2023, he is preparing the men’s national team for their first-ever test match to be played at home against Jordan on May 23, 2025. 

We spoke with Rory to find out more about the progress of rugby in the Kingdom, the preparation for the milestone match, and what the future holds for Bahrain rugby and how they can play at a higher level.

Photo Credit – Bahrain Rugby Federation

Rugby Roots and Journeyman – Rory Drummond

Rory told us of his journeyman rugby experience. ”Well, you can tell from my accent, which I think has kind of become vanilla over the years, but I am Scottish. I started playing rugby for a small club in Fife, and my route has been varied ever since.

I moved to Edinburgh and I played national grade level and played for the Scotland U18s, U19s and U20s, and then I had a pretty rogue move to Spain. I played for a club called Gernika, which was an amazing experience. We actually played in the Challenge Cup the year that I was there, and after spending a year in Spain, I came back to Scotland for another couple of years.

I eventually was picked up by Glasgow Warriors and had two seasons there, moved to Hong Kong and played for Hong Kong Scottish, but then COVID hit, and I had to come back to Scotland.”

At that stage, as we all did, Rory re-evaluated what he was going to do and had the opportunity to play the Super Six in Scotland (SRU Super Series, known as the FOSROC Super Series). It was then that he received a chance call from a friend in Bahrain.

“I was called by a friend from Bahrain and was asked if I fancied a new adventure. In the space of about a week, I was on a flight out to Bahrain initially just to play. I had my own personal training business which was online by that stage. I had done various coaching roles, but I came out here as a player, and then things just kind of gathered momentum from there.”

Photo Credit – Bahrain Rugby Federation

Bahrain Rugby Football Club and Bahrain Rugby Federation

Rory confirmed that since 2015, his rugby roles, even as a player, had involved a senior playing or coaching element. He had previously coached at Birmingham Bears as an assistant forwards coach and helped their premiership team. In his time in Hong Kong, he also did S&C work and became a qualified personal trainer.

“I had that S&C background, and the experience of working with the forwards. So when I moved to Bahrain, it was just quite lucky. At the time, the Bahrain Rugby Federation had only just been established and had become a member of Asia Rugby six months before I arrived.”

The Bahrain Rugby Federation was established in February 2022 following the directives of His Royal Highness, Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa, First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council for Youth & Sports, Chairman of the General Sports Authority and President of Bahrain Olympic Committee to establish the federation and a committee had been established to launch the process.

When they were admitted as an Asia Rugby member in July 2022, the federation was committed to the involvement of Bahrain Rugby Football Club in cross-border competitions such as the West Asia Premiership and to providing access to support in the development of coaches, officials and women’s rugby. Their goal was to “encourage, promote and develop the game of rugby in Bahrain.”

Rory explained, “When I arrived, there was a board that had been put in place, but we weren’t entirely sure how to actually develop it. Bahrain is unique in that it is a one-club country. At Bahrain Rugby Football Club, we now have 1st and 2nd teams, but we’re the only club within the country. 

Image Credit – Bahrain Rugby Federation

It just requires navigating how you separate the two (national team and club), but after six months of being here, an opportunity came up to be a rugby development manager for the Federation and for the national team, which I was quite excited by. It started as a rugby development manager, but was very much heading towards a kind of CEO role or an Operations Director and a strategic role, as opposed to a hands-on coaching role. 

I managed to make some impact in junior rugby at the club that I was involved with. The development has gone from strength to strength, and I was then offered the Director of Rugby role for the Men’s national team, which created a little bit more responsibility off the pitch. It was operational and strategic, whilst also overseeing the performance side and the development side of our young players and our national eligible players.”

Putting in place the youth structures and getting more local Bahrain kids into rugby were aspects of the role Rory says he is passionate about.

“I have a passion for developing young sports people, and that’s not just rugby, and I now oversee rugby predominantly through my Director of Rugby role. But the club is a multi-sport club and we have Gaelic football, football, tennis, badminton, netball, all these sports. 

It’s been a great way of seeing how different sports work, and seeing what kind of elements from those sports we can put into rugby. It’s been hugely successful so far, and an exciting thing that’s coming up is our first-ever international test match.”

Domestic Season 2024-2025

The Bahrain Rugby Football Club came off a successful domestic season, although it disappointingly ended up with no silverware. The First XV lost the Men’s West Asia Super Rugby final 21-24 to the Dubai Hurricanes (their 1st loss this season), and the Second XV lost their Men’s UAE Division One Rugby final 19-28 to the Dubai Tigers First XV.

“We were disappointed to lose two finals, but ultimately, on review, it’s been a hugely successful year. The Second XV was something the Federation pushed quite hard because it gave us that development tool for young players. We had eight Colts players come through to play on that team. Without that, they just wouldn’t have had that exposure, and now they are considered for this step up into an international test match.”

Bahrain First Men’s 15s International Test Match – May 23rd 2025 vs Jordan

In February 2025, the new Board of Directors for the Bahrain Rugby Football Union was put in place for the period until 2028, with Jean-Christophe Francois Abel Duran appointed as President.

The national team has played in Asia Rugby 7s tournaments but has yet to have a full-capped 15s test match, which Rory said has been a long time coming.

“A lot of work has gone on behind the scenes to get to this stage. We have been lucky enough to be able to enter the Asia Rugby framework in Sevens, and we have had great success. The first year we entered the Trophy Series and we finished runners-up to Thailand. Last year (2024), we won the bowl competition and lost out to the Philippines, who went on to win the whole competition.. So across both tournaments, we have only been beaten by the winners, and that has been a hugely successful journey for the boys here. 

Image Credit – Bahrain Rugby Federation

But to be able to come into the fifteens set up now is just really exciting. Our team is more set for fifteens as opposed to sevens, and we’ve got a few larger boys. So I think the skill set alone has only got so far, but now we’re able to kind of exert our physical game a little bit more in that aspect, which is quite exciting.”

The test match against Jordan will be played on Friday, 23rd May 2025 and will be hosted at the Bahrain Rugby Football Club facilities. The match will be free to attend but will also be streamed via the club’s social media pages and they have worked with a commercial partner, Pulse media, who Rory says “have been fantastic and just adding a layer of detail to your production from the club this year, and they’re going to be on board for the production of this test match as well. We’ll have various radio stations giving updates to all their listeners, so it’s set to be a really exciting day. “

The Bahrain training squad was announced a few weeks ago, and Adam Wallace was confirmed as captain and Alastair Crombie as vice-captain

“It is a very unique situation. Adam Wallace is the Director of Rugby for the rugby club, at which I actually play. So we’ve effectively swapped roles for this. What it does is it gives us great continuity. We don’t try to reinvent things, and we have a very purposely separate training environment when it comes to the national setup, different energy, although it’s a similar kind of personnel.

Adam Wallace for those that don’t know, has probably been the biggest contributor to rugby development within Bahrain. He’s now been a resident for just over 10 years, and he’s led the club team to championships as a player, and he’s also led the club to championships as a coach. So to have him as captain is just a no-brainer.  He’s effectively like having another coach on the pitch who brings a wealth of experience, and he’s still got a lot to offer as a player. I’m excited to see him come out and really get his teeth stuck into it. 

Alistair Crombie is the Bahrain club captain, and again, it was a no-brainer that he transfers over and leads the pack and line out going into that international match.

Image Credit – Bahrain Rugby Federation Men’s 15s captain 2025 Adam Wallace

On the style of play Rory hopes his team will bring against Jordan, he explained, “What I’m hoping they’ll bring is a hard edge. We’ve got a strong pack of forwards. We’re an abrasive team. I think that’s what comes from the club. I think anyone who’s played rugby against the club over the last 10 years will agree we have a strong set piece, strong defence, and yeah, a physical edge to the team, but with the ability to move the ball. We praise ourselves for having a skill set of everyone from one to 15 who can move the ball and can play at a relatively high pace of rugby. 

I think the two combined make us quite a dangerous team, and I think that’s why we’ve been successful as a club over eight years, and hopefully while be successful as a national team as well, and a bit

More National Teams in Asia Need Test Match Rugby

Jordan, like so many national teams in the region, is also deprived of regular international test match rugby. We asked Rory how the match came about and what the relationship with Jordan Rugby was like.

“Our relationship with Jordan is fantastic. We actually travelled there two and a half years ago to play in the Jordan Sevens, which was their first ever national sevens tournament. We actually won it, and it was a brilliant tool for us entering the Asia Rugby Sevens Trophy, and ever since then, we’ve just had a really strong relationship. 

We both understand how important it is to support each other. I think the difficulty is that there isn’t a set fifteens program underneath the top division (Asia Rugby Emirates Men’s Championship), so there are no competitive fixtures scheduled by Asia Rugby. It is entirely up to the unions to create these fixtures. So these independent games are the only way that 15s rugby will progress in the region. 

It’s critical that you find people with a similar mindset, similar attitude somewhere, who want to grow, as Jordan has, and as we believe we do within the region. There’s only a set number of teams that I think financially have the capabilities to travel.

So putting that jigsaw together is quite difficult, and with Jordan, we’ve got a natural kind of partner there. It was an obvious choice for our first-ever test match to approach them first, and we know we’re really grateful that they’ve responded with a positive outcome.”

Drummond mentioned that someone has mentioned the possibility of playing the UAE, as they are in the AREMC and in preparation mode in the region, competing for a Rugby World Cup spot, which they had discussed but they could not agree on a date to play.

“It’s hugely exciting to see that we’ve been spoken about in the same kind of sentence as the UAE. We’re not there yet, for sure, but within three years, I think we could be competitive with the United Arab Emirates. And then if we are, does that mean that we’re within that tournament, potentially playing for a World Cup spot in the next cycle? 

I think that’s very achievable and a hugely exciting opportunity. I think we have to be in that top-tier competition within the region. The problem in getting there is that without these sanctioned Asia Rugby tournaments, it’s almost about making enough noise for you to be noticed, which is something that we are trying very hard to do. 

We’re trying to make a bit of noise being a bit of a disruptor, I think is probably fair, but also is one of the things we are trying to do actively. We want to be noticed. We want the opportunity to play these tournaments, so it’s about getting the right noise, the right backing, and then the opportunity, and then delivering.”

It’s Important To Make Some Noise – Rory Drummond

Rory confirmed that the selected Bahrain national team players will have a capping ceremony straight after the game, and was hopeful the supporters would stay around for that. 

“That’s a really special moment, and that’s one of the things coming into camp, is I try and push across to the players that might be the same faces that they’re playing with, but it’s a very different thing that you’re representing. It’s not just your friends and a club, but a country. It’s a country that we’ve all called home for five plus years. It’s a place that means a lot to us for various reasons, where we’ve started families, where we’ve met partners, where we’ve developed careers.

“As an expat, you’ll know yourself, you can fall in love with these countries quite quickly. And I think the way that Bahrain grabs you and keeps you, it really does, it grabs your heart. The boys here will be as excited to represent Bahrain as they would their country of origin.”

Drummond is also keen to make a spectacle of the milestone match and is hoping that the match is well attended and well received.

“We’ve got various media responsibilities with captains, coaches, and with the board to try and promote the fixture. We’re doing a bit with the schools as well, so all schools will be able to come to the game free, as anyone can, but we will be really pushing to invite the youth here. 

This is the kind of launch for us, and we want to use this as a kick-off for rugby in the country. We really want to inspire local Bahraini kids, as well as expat kids who will spend their time here and become eligible themselves. It is important for us to really make a bit of noise with this fixture and to gain some momentum going forward.

On what message he would send to anyone coming to watch the match at the ground or via the stream, Drummond said, “I think it’s a hugely exciting opportunity, the first international rugby fixture in Bahrain. The club, which, if you haven’t been to, is a fantastic place to watch sport and even just to come and socialise. So we’re very lucky to have that connection with the club. It will be high energy, high octane and high production. It will be a really good event, on all levels.

I think the rugby quality will be very, very impressive. And I think it will surprise a lot of people. I think people who are coming to the event or watching on the stream will look at it and think, this is up there with professional environments. We’re hugely excited, and we hope as many people come down as possible.

Livestream YouTube link for the Bahrain vs Jordan Test match – Friday, 23 May.

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