The win does however further
reinforce Saudi Arabia as a serious developing source of international
schoolboy rugby. It adds further weight to their application for official
recognition of the game in the Kingdom.
“We expected a hard game, but
this was exceptionally so,” said Dave Kinkead the head coach for the Camels.
“The Lebanon side was bigger, stronger and had some university players and we
lost the services of key player Farid Abdulwahab with an injury early on.” Leading
18 to 8 at half time, The Camels fought to keep their lead but a couple of fine
tries from Lebanon brought them even during the second half.
“The guys showed enormous
maturity and determination and really dug in and but for a disallowed try in
the last minutes, we would have won,” said Kinkead.
The two teams have met on six
previous occasions, with the Camels winning four of them. Now at five wins to two,
the Under-18 team will disperse to higher education at the end of this season.
This leaves the ground clear for a thrilling looking Under-16s team to step
into their boots. Their next international outing is in Beirut in a two-day
tournament over the weekend of March 22-23. They will be out to ratchet up the
reputation of the Kingdom’s junior rugby a notch or two more.
A last minute bonus and based on
the Camels performance in Lebanon yesterday, they have been invited to compete
in the Under-18s World Championships in Serbia in August. “We would be up
against the best in the world, but it would certainly put us in the top 20 and
on the day, who knows what could happen?” concluded Kinkead.
