As Lebanon celebrated a dramatic outbreak of tranquility, LAU clinched top spot in the inaugural Bank of Beirut Rugby League Championship and now have a week off before facing either AUB or Jounieh in the June final. Despite having won five Lebanese titles it was only the fourth time the Immortals have topped the league table in eleven attempts (AUB and Balamand have finished first on three occasions, with Club Libanais the latest team to achieve that mark, in Spring ‘07).

Against a brave but under-strength Balamand side which had nothing to play for LAU struggled to find a groove, dropping far too much ball before pulling away in the second half and registering a comfortable win that took them to 21 competition points, one ahead of AUB.

Five eighth Karim Jamal sparked LAU, taking advantage of the Razorbacks’ overstretched defence to score four tries, with centre Mohamed Jamil, arguably the player most culpable for frittering away possession on a cool evening, registering two more. Coach Remond Safi would have been pulling his hair out in the first half as umpteen offloads and passes went to ground. The best example came from a Robin Hachache break that ended with the international forward’s wild offload at Balamand’s exposed goal-line that rolled touch-in-goal.

Eventually Jamal broke Balamand’s heroic rearguard action in the 29th minute but Balamand, missing seven first choice players, scored on the hooter through Gilbert Haydamous, playing his last game for the club, to make it 6-6 at the break. An early Jamil four-pointer put LAU back out in front and Balamand, having worked so hard in the opening stanza, could offer little except for more stubborn defending to finish the season on a respectable note. Having suffered the loss of rep players Darwich ‘the Little Maestro’ Darwich, prop Amin Maassarani and half Lubnan Alamuddine before the start of the season, and Omar Darwiche, Gilbert Haydamous and coach Mohamed Habbous halfway through the campaign, the Razorbacks have performed remarkably well, and had they got a result against LAU three weeks ago would have been one win away from a finals berth at LAU’s expense.

But it was not to be. When crunch matches are on the line, LAU has proved to be the past master. They will see if they can emphasise that point in two weeks.

Source : lebrl.com