Tel Aviv Heat, Israel’s first and only professional rugby team, have decided to plough on despite the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, according to Planet Rugby

The Heat has got six Fijian players in their squad.

They played their first match of the season on November 4 in the Rugby Europe Super Cup, just a few weeks after the events of October 7.

Heat took on Lusitanos, who featured some of Portugal’s stars from the recent Rugby World Cup, and claimed an impressive 31-23 triumph.

It is fair to say that their build-up has been fraught, which has included the team relocating to Lisbon and losing some of their Israeli players to military service.

The Fijian players in the squad include, Rio Olympic Games gold medallist Semi Kunatani and Jasa Veremalua. The other players are Peceli Nacebe, Jone Manu, Sailasa Turagaluvu and Nemani Buliruarua.

Heat chief executive Peter Sickle said some of their home-grown individuals, the foreign players understandably had their doubts (when the war broke out).

A few decided to pull out while others were about to until they were convinced by the hierarchy that they would be safe.

“We had a plan for the season that has almost literally gone up in smoke,” Sickle said.

“Our whole season will be conducted outside of Israel. Opposing teams were not going to travel and some foreign players dropped out while others were on the verge of doing so until we said you will not be in harm’s way.

“We had to scramble to arrange things like Schengen visas via the Portuguese embassy in Israel. By the time we could assemble the team for pre-season in Portugal for our first game, we had a very short run-up.”

There wasn’t just a safety aspect to consider but a moral one, with rugby very much not at the forefront of people’s minds due to the ongoing conflict.

Sickle added: “We reached out to the leaders of the rugby community in Israel through the Union and said: ‘There are much bigger issues than rugby at hand. Does it seem right for us to continue on with business as usual in light of the horrific atrocities?’

“We wanted to make sure we were representing the country in the right way. ‘Full steam ahead, don’t stop now’ was the answer.

“Guys are fighting on the battlefields of Gaza, and the Tel Aviv Heat will be competing on the pitch for Israel for the guys who cannot show up.”

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