Welcome to the Rugby League Europe Federation

Inaugural full Rugby League fixture staged in Saudi‏

Monday 1st March 2010

Saudi Select U'16s 30 - Jeddah Select U'17s 28
 
SS - Tries: Bisher Shehabi 3, Farid Abdul-Wahab, Ahmad Al Darubi, Hassan Sharbatly
       Goals: Zander Potgieter 3/6
 
JS - Tries: Manuel Ocampo 2, Adriaan Potgieter 2, Umer Basedien
      Goals: Adriaan Potgieter 4/5
 
The very first 13-a-side RL fixture in Saudi Arabia took place at AISJ, on Sunday 28th February. The fixture was used as a warm up for this weekends Middle East Championships to take place in Beirut, Lebanon between the hosts, KSA and Palestine.
The KSA Squad was made up of boys selected from last months Schools U'16 competition who where looking to build some momentum before their first fixture with the Palastinians on Thursday evening.
The opponents who on average where 18 months older was a combination of the Saudi Select team which lost 24-0 to Lebanon in October and local boys not able to travel due to various factors. Over 30 lads turned up to be part of this team so the future looks bright for RL in The Kingdom.
 
A healthy crowd turned up to see the Jeddah Select side dominate the first 10 minutes. Tries by Argentinian hooker Ocampo and then a full length effort by scrum half Potgieter both converted by the latter saw the score 12-0 with barely 5 minutes on the clock. The next 10 minutes where very scrappy with far too many handling errors by both sides resulting in too much time being spent in the scrums rather than free flowing RL. Referee David Martin did well to control the game with so many lads still unsure of the basic rules of full RL. The game changed when the 2 Syrian second row subs Bisher Shehabi and Ahmad Al Darubi where introduced. With Captain Ruan Knuppel calling the shots the Saudi Select started to make more and more metres and they where rewarded when a towering bomb by loose forward and brother of Jeddah Selects Adriaan, Zander Potgieter was dropped by the full back and stand off Abdul-Wahab pounced to bring the scores back to 12-6 with the successful conversion. The Saudi boys ran in two quick tries before half time first a typical barnstorming run by Darubi saw him under the posts and then winger Sharbatly forced his way over from dummy half to bring the score to 16-12 at half time in favour of the Saudi's.
 
The second half saw play ebb and flow up and down the field with the number of substitutions causing the play to look stagmented at times. The game changed in Saudi's favour when Shehabi ran 60 metres leaving everyone standing to score in the corner. It was all Saudi and it looked like the game was going to go their way when Zander through a wayward pass straight into the arms of his brother who raced the full length of the field to score and then convert bringing the score to within 2 points. A moment of deja vu as Shehabi replicated his previous effort to race another half length effort to claim his 2nd try of the evening, Zander converted and at 26-18 with 10 minutes left it looked all over.
Full credit to the Jeddah Select team who rallied and two quick tries from Ocampo and centre Basadien and 1 conversion from Potgieter actually put them in the lead by two points.
With time ticking away, cue Shehabi who stormed past 5 defenders to win the game for the Saudi's and start the celebrations.
 
Coaches Chris Ratcliffe and Dave Kinkead where happy with the result and it was a chance to have a run out before the opening game in a few days time. Ratcliffe added "it was a disjointed game on a whole but when you consider that this was the very first game of 13 a'side RL for the majority of the boys then you have to take it as a positive. It was great to see so many boys put their hands up and want to play. Hopefully we can iron out our flaws before the weekend and learn to respect the ball a little better. There where some fine individual performances out there and if we can work more as a team in our next performance then I expect us to impress when over in Beirut"
 
Man of the match for both sides where Shehabi and Adriaan Potgieter.