Abu Dhabi Harlequins are making a serious signal of intent ahead of the UAE Premiership season, having travelled to Sri Lanka to play the country’s champion club this weekend.

Overseas pre-season tours are a rarity in domestic rugby, and Quins’ trip to Sri Lanka’s hill country might have ramifications across Abu Dhabi, too.

The capital’s oldest club have a fixture lined up against Kandy, the side who will themselves be heading to the UAE next weekend for the first West Asia Champions League.

In that new competition, they will be pitted against Abu Dhabi Saracens, the Arabian Gulf’s No 1 team, as well as Doha and Olymp, the 2014 champions of Kazakhstan.

While Saracens are hoping to get a steer as to the standard of the Sri Lankan champions, their city rivals have a clear focus of their own ahead of the new campaign.

“We want to set the tone for the season,” said Mike McFarlane, the new coach of the Quins. Details