Match Report for Doha I v Dubai Hurricanes 11 December 2009
By Peter Townson
(from the Gulf Times 12 Dec 09)
Doha: Doha Rugby Football Centre hosted the Dubai Hurricanes yesterday afternoon, where rainy conditions made for a sometimes scrappy but hardfought match which the home team won 15-0.
From the outset the game was played with a high level of intensity, and on the back of a win last time out, Doha attempted to stamp their authority on the match in the opening minutes.
Attacking with purpose, they managed to hold onto the ball for significant passages of play, and put some early pressure on their visitors.
However, after five weeks out since their last match, it did seem as if some of the players were a little but rusty and proceeded to make a number of clumsy mistakes, preventing them from gathering any serious momentum and helping to keep the scoreboard at 0-0.
Eventually, a good lineout and maul move saw the ball moved to fly half, Colm Coyle who made an excellent break and showed a good turn of pace to sidestep the Hurricanes defence and go under the posts to score.
A successful conversion by James Cotter put the home side ahead, 7-0 and this is how the scoreboard stayed until half time.
The second half started in much the same way as the first. A bit scrappy with a lot of kicking out of hand, the match was not a great spectator affair.
Doha managed to pull off the move of the match as they started in the middle of the field before running the ball through the hands of both forwards and backs and eventually, speedy winger Andrew Coomer whose injection of pace saw him over in the corner to score.
A missed conversion left the score at 12-0 and Hurricanes tried desperately to pull one back but were consistently thwarted by strong defensive work by Doha.
Coyle added another three points from a penalty before the end, and the match ended with a 15-0 victory for Doha.
Speaking after the match, Doha captain Richard Liddington expressed his satisfaction at the win, and praised his team for the commitment they showed in the match as well as in training leading up to the fixture.
“A win is a win, even if it might not have been the prettiest game to watch,” he said, adding “we wanted to beat them and I would take a 15-0 result any day of the week.”
He also praised the visitors’ efforts in making it a tough contest, despite only travelling with a squad of 19 players.
One area of domination for Doha was the scrum, which will please the team, as it was one of their strongest weapons last season, but hadn’t quite been firing as well this year. Despite being penalised for a variety of offences at scrum-time, Doha exerted such pressure on Hurricanes that they were a threat scrumming with the ball as well as against the head, and Hurricanes could never relax or view their own scrum with any confidence at all.