On their second visit to Lebanon the Under 16 Saudi Select team — the Camels — beat Palestine 20 points to zero and recorded on Friday the Kingdom's first international win in a rugby league.
The 13-strong rugby league team consisted of players selected from the American School in Jeddah, Jeddah Prep and Grammar and the British International School in Jeddah. The win vindicates the determination of players and coaches to develop rugby in schools in Saudi Arabia and finally dispels the image of it being an expatriate-only game.
The win means that Saudi Arabia has won international honors in both union and league disciplines. The Saudi Scorpions won the Arabian Gulf Cup in rugby union 7s in 2006 marking the Kingdom's debut in the world of international rugby.
On Saturday the Camels take on the Lebanon national U16's team and will be out to seek revenge for a defeat at their first meeting late last year. On Monday Lebanon beat Palestine 16-6. Team coaches Chris Ratcliffe and Shaun Nicholls expressed "quiet confidence" at lifting the Kingdom's first international rugby league trophy.
"Palestine played with the whole of their hearts," said Nicholls. "They tried their best. What is good is to see the sport really taking a hold in the region."
He added that there were some scrappy moments in the Camels style of play but that they put their heads down and delivered when it mattered.
Walid Sanchez, director of corporate services for the recently formed Saudi Rugby Association and Saudi Scorpions team member, said that the Camel's win was a significant step in the development of the game in the Kingdom.
"This is great news indeed. The energy and commitment of these young players, their coaches and of the schools that support them has achieved a historic step. It's no longer a question of 'Do Saudis play really rugby?' but rather 'Can we reach the Olympics?' Yes and yes are the answers to that!"
The score came from five unconverted tries, two in the first half and three in the second.
"For the first 15 minutes the game was all square, and the Camels only looked like scoring once," said Ratcliffe. He said that he put that down to nerves at the event and the size of the pitch; only twice had the Camels played on a full-size pitch.
However in the second quarter the team came together and started passing wide and deep, which is where their strength was, putting together some useful combinations to feed Bisha Shehaibi and Nazem Ghobara with the ball.
"After that we were hard to stop," said Ratcliffe.
Despite a gritty effort to come back at the Camels, the domination of the Palestinians pack in defense firmly shut the door on them time after time.
The second half saw the Camels in full flow. "Good passing and possession together with well-thought-out chips of the ball out wide gave us the edge," said Ratcliffe.
Tries from Praney Abraham, Nazem Ghobara and the perpetually hard-working Ahmed Daroubi sealed the fate of the Palestinians.
The big test against Lebanon comes at 1:30 p.m. Lebanon time on Saturday.
"There will be some very disappointed Camel players if we don't win this," opined Ratcliffe. What we can be sure of though is that they will play their socks off for a win and a trophy to bring back to the Kingdom.
“The Camels have shown that the Kingdom has the potential to make a mark in the world of rugby, especially if they can repeat Friday’s performance in the final,” said Sanchez. “We invite anyone interested in playing or supporting the sport in the Kingdom to get in touch at http://kasrugby.com.”
