Riyadh’s coach Simon Hill said that Jeddah deserved credit for their effort, but the Falcons had demonstrated their comprehensive skills in a controlled display of aggressive play. “Even so, we could have done better, as we failed to capitalize on opportunities on several occasions,” he said, noting “especially with some less than satisfactory handling from the backs.” The halftime score of 22-0 was a foretaste of the drubbing to come, but Jeddah’s luck had held to some extent as Riyadh encountered some stiff opposition and very decent tackling in their assault on the visitors’ line.

Matt Jay, speaking for Jeddah, said that Jeddah had fielded a team packed with inexperienced players and further weakened by the absence of several key players. “That takes nothing away from Riyadh’s performance, it was awesome,” he told Arab News. “Many of our younger players, some of whom have only been playing for three months, had never played a 15 a side match before and they encountered some very strong and experienced individuals who were giving no quarter. It was an object lesson in real club rugby and came complete with all the bruises.”

The Jeddah pack was completely outclassed by a far stronger and heavier Riyadh pack. The pressure on the Jeddah scrum was too much for them to bear, and in the interests of safety, referee Ray Meerloo took the sensible decision to make the scrums uncontested, which gave Jeddah some respite and probably prevented serious injury.

The match started off evenly, with Riyadh expecting Jeddah to be very strong, especially in the fly half and three-quarter line as Jeddah has some very rapid individuals.

An early penalty taken well by Riyadh fly half Tim Jardine settled the nerves and from then on with some outstanding Riyadh forward play, it was pretty much one-way traffic as Riyadh probed the weaknesses of the Jeddah defense.

At the break, Riyadh was 22-0 up. With the instruction to keep it simple and move the ball along the back line, Riyadh pounced from the off, setting up a superb try for winger Keith Croft. Now into their stride, Riyadh continued to score freely. The platform given by the tight five, which resulted in them all being awarded “Man of the Match” enabled the backs to exploit Jeddah deficiencies and mistakes. While this gave Jeddah some respite, and the ability to retain their own scrummage ball, Riyadh never let up, scoring another six tries, and trundling on to a total of 10.

In defense Riyadh were outstanding, missing only a couple of tackles throughout the game. A slew of changes from the 50 minute point onwards gave Riyadh a more direct approach and proved that the current strength and depth in the Riyadh squad will ensure the team remains a force to be reckoned with for the immediate future.

Jeddah, however, found Riyadh’s weakness in the lineouts and exploited it, winning the majority of them and often stealing the home team’s ball. For five minutes at the end of the first half Jeddah were camped on Riyadh’s try line and were only prevented from going over when a knock on was called and the drive came to an end.

“That signalled the end of a frustrating half of mistakes that simply continued into the second, with Matt Jay and others having particularly tough games, but others shone like Andrew Bohn, Rob Holmyard and Peter Miller, but you need the rest too...!” said Jeddah club chairman Scott McCarthy.

Despite their lack of experience, the Jeddah youngsters kept going to the end of the match, and were warmly applauded by Riyadh for their commitment and discipline, despite being on the wrong end of a thumping defeat.

“An extremely hard game,” commented Jay, “But it was played very cleanly and the traditional courtesy and sportsmanship by our hosts was outstanding.”

“The physicality and aggression from Riyadh scared many of our newer players, it was typical rugby, heartbreaking for me to watch, but a great moment for Riyadh,” commented McCarthy.