KUALA LUMPUR: National 15s head coach Farid Syazwan Abu Bakar is hoping his charges will make things difficult for United Arab Emirates when the two sides lock horns in the Asia Rugby Championship (ARC) in Dubai on Friday.
UAE lost their opening match to Hong Kong (52-5), but bounced back strongly with a surprise win over South Korea (36-32) in the second week of the competition.
Farid is expecting a tough game at The Sevens Stadium.
"UAE are a physically strong side like Hong Kong and are also technically very good as they have a lot of expatriate and naturalised players," said Farid today.
"We watched their match against South Korea and it is possible they could employ a similar pattern against us.
"We will try and contest them in the set pieces and make it hard for them to gain possession. We have to try and disrupt their rhythm.
"It will be hard for our players to match them physically, but we will try our best. Our boys are in good spirits and will fight to the end."
The Bunga Raya squad lost their first two matches against South Korea (55-5) and Hong Kong (70-6) earlier this month.
Malaysia currently sits at the bottom of the table in the four-nation competition with zero points.
Unless they can beat UAE (third on five points) by a considerable margin, it is likely Malaysia will be relegated to playing in Division One next year.
The last time Malaysia played UAE was during the 2017 ARC Division One competition, which was also the year Malaysia secured promotion to the top flight.
Malaysia defeated UAE 36-22 in Ipoh en route to winning the Division One title that season.
The situation, however, is different now as Malaysia has only included one naturalised player — England-born Lee Chapman — in the squad over the last two seasons, while UAE have strengthened their squad over the years.
"We had about six naturalised players — mostly Fijians — in the squad during that 2017 season," said Farid.
"It has been tough for our local boys over the last two seasons as they are still adapting to playing without naturalised players in the team.
"But it is important for us to build up our own local players who can break the line and cope with the game at the higher level.
"That is the challenge. We will face it together as a team."
Hong Kong are on course to defending their title and sit atop the table with 10 points while South Korea are second on seven.
The two teams will face-off for the title at the Hong Kong Football Club stadium on June 22.