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The odds may be undoubtedly stacked against them but both Thailand’s women and Tunisa’s men cannot wait to go Dubai.

One of the surprise packages of the Asian qualifying tournament, Thailand, will use their new found confidence to attempt a few upsets at the Women’s Rugby World Cup Sevens in Dubai.

After beating their more fancied rivals Japan and China on the way to securing a spot in the first Women’s RWC Sevens, Thailand head to Dubai in confident mood. Captain Phanthippha Wongwangchan believes their best is yet to come.

“I am so excited and really looking forward to the competition. I want to show the world what Thailand is capable of in Rugby Sevens,” said captain Phanthippha Wongwangchan.

A Thai air force officer by day, Wongwangchan has been playing rugby for nine years and takes the responsibility of leading her country very seriously.

“It is my honour to lead the side to the RWC Sevens but it is also hard work for me to cheer them up when we are down,” she said.

“To be centre of the team, it requires more than just concentration. I need to be on fire.”

Drawn to play Canada, Brazil and Spain in their pool matches Wongwangchan says her team will not take a backward step.

Thailand coach Supparut Allapach, who has been working on improving the squad’s strength and speed over the past few months, is prepared to go one step further suggesting the Thais can compete with any country in the world despite their size.

“Although we are the smallest in terms of physical condition, we are going to make them realise that size does not matter in Sevens. Teamwork is the key word in our team.”

Head coach at Vajiravudh College, one of Thailand’s best rugby schools, Allapach says rugby in Thailand has received a significant boost with their inclusion in RWC Sevens.

“More Thai people are fully aware of women’s rugby and it makes such a big impact on rugby in Thailand.”

Unlike Thailand, Tunisia’s men had a far from straight forward passage to Dubai - claiming the final RWC Sevens berth from the Africa region qualifiers by winning a third place play-off over Namibia.

However Tunisia are definitely no strangers to causing upsets being known as one of the giant killers of RWC Sevens 2005, knocking over South Africa in the opening match in Hong Kong. South African-born coach Danie de Villiers is quietly confident of his sides chances, even though they face an inform England side first up in their pool stages.

“That (beating South Africa in 2005) was a very, very good result for Tunisia and obviously it is something we would like to achieve again. I think the focus for us though in 2009 is not so much to be giant killers, but to be part of the giants.”

“We are up for it, we want to go to the World Cup, not just as participants but we really want to compete. If you want to achieve something we will have to knock off some of the big teams.”

With just six premiership clubs fielding one team each in their domestic competition, Tunisia doesn’t have a big pool of players to draw upon or the salaries to match most of their opponents. But de Villiers says his side’s preparation is just as professional.

“We are definitely amateur when it comes to paying salaries but I can promise you that in the way we prepare we are very much professional.

“All the guys are working very hard and the competition within the squad is very healthy and very good.”