Who gets 80,000-guest Dubai party started?

The General Manager of the Emirates Dubai 7s – ex-England international Mat Tait – understands where he fits into the scheme of things. 

Having retired five years ago, he gets the rugby bit: “I’ve not been that long out of the game,” he said. “I can understand the rugby ecosystem and can have a view as to what players want when they’re coming in, around their time on ground and playing bits.”

His stack of experience includes both sevens and 15s forms of the game. In the 15-a-side version, he made his English Premiership and international debut in 2004, aged 18, and played in a World Cup final in 2007. 

Many will remember him in a Leicester Tigers’ shirt, where he clocked up 143 caps for the English Premiership giants. But his 15-year professional career also featured outstanding performances with England sevens, including a silver at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Australia. 

But the Dubai 7s is more than just a rugby event. “My wife would say she was fun until she married me,” Tait joked, “so it’s probably ironic that I’m now running a huge party!” 

And it is a huge party – an estimated 80,000 visitors will pass through the gates to the Sevens Stadium in the desert this weekend.

While Tait’s fancy footwork might be better suited to a rugby field than a dancefloor, he knows how to secure the right people to throw the biggest party in town. 

He has bagged one of the UKs most successful music artists, Stormzy, for this year’s event, while attention grabbing acts like the Sugababes and Artful Dodger will also provide the soundtrack to the sevens rugby weekend.

More than any other stop on the HSBC SVNS Series circuit, the Dubai team make the most of their moment in the sunny spotlight. 

It’s not just the music. The Dubai opener features a wealth of amateur and veteran tournaments on the outer pitches. There is netball. And cricket – and padel is set to stay with the addition of permanent courts at the venue. 

The sporting offering sits alongside the WODon3 crossfit event, extensive hospitality and food and beverage stands.

The party vibe is everywhere. But you aren’t likely to see Tait taking time out to schmooze with the stars backstage. Chances are you might not even notice him during the whole weekend. His understated approach to delivering this top-tier event seems to fit with the man who grew up in County Durham. 

The first time I saw him in his current role he was in plain chinos and a shirt (with a high vis jacket on – Tait is not one to mess with regulation).

He relishes the unseen aspects of the job. “I like numbers and I like detail.” 

And it is this attention to detail that makes this understated GM so dedicated to building the biggest party in town.

Asked why Dubai has become more of a festival, he said:  “I think it’s necessary. Ultimately we need to get new eyeballs on the form of the game. And the reality is you have to make these events viable.”

Dubai has doubled down on broadening the experiential aspect, even dropping ‘rugby’ from the event title in 2021 – a nod to the fast-developing and shifting demographic of the city and the need to offer a standout product in a busy event season.

But Tait is still a rugby guy at heart. And he is aware of the history of the event: “We are very proud of the fact that rugby is the heritage of the event, it’s where it originated.” 

As part of this recognition, returning invitational teams will be on a Wall of Fame this year to celebrate the number of times they’ve attended the tournament.

This will be Tait’s second full event as the boss – he took the role in November 2022 but only weeks ahead of that iteration of the event. “There’s a lot of responsibility. It’s a crown jewel in the Dubai events calendar. So there’s a lot of pressure that comes with it.” 

If the pressure of the crowd from any of his 38 England caps hasn’t prepared him for this side of the job, his route to his current role via a sports advisory position has stood him in good stead in other ways: “I went into the advisory space for three years. It’s a great place to learn the fundamentals of business.”

But what really hits the sweet spot for Tait in his current role is working as part of the behind-the-scenes team. “This is probably as close as I’m going to get now to ever playing…

“You get good people in the right positions and then you build up to something, and then it’s finished and you debrief.”

The sense of belonging and working with like-minded people harks back to a previous life.

As much as Tait is a leader who works – in his own words – “in the background”, he is a secure and reassuring pair of hands. Even so, with the days counting down to the crowds descending on the desert, he admits that at times he feels like a duck furiously paddling underwater. “But no one else can see it, which is fine.” 

Detail-oriented Tait is almost the antithesis of the flamboyant and fun-filled festival experience you get at Dubai when the HSBC SVNS rolls into town. But while thousands of fans will be dancing in the scaffolded stands, somebody has to look after the nuts and bolts. 

Would he move the tournament anywhere in the world, would he? “Leicester!” he replies quickly, but with a smile.

No doubt the city where he spent so many years would love to have him back. But Dubai is his home – and he is walking, working proof that your heart can lie firmly with the game of rugby and yet still break new ground.