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Bahrain Rugby Football Club’s (BRFC) first XV secured a valuable Gulf Top Six win at the weekend as they overcame close rivals Doha.
It was the second win of the competition for the home side and one that stretches a winning home record in all contests this season.
Similar to the match against Dubai Hurricanes two weeks ago, Bahrain started in style and scored two cracking tries through fly-half Chris Coupland and then a scintillating 50-metre gallop from second row Matt McKee.
With scrum-half Rich Ryan in fine form, Bahrain found themselves cruising 15-0 ahead after just 20 minutes. However, the Doha outfit was no soft touch, and former Arabian Gulf international Paul Beard tagged on two penalties for the visitors to leave the scores at 15-6 by half-time.
The home crowd was in expectant mood at the start of the second period but it was Doha who struck with a try to close the gap to two.
Bahrain settled themselves with another Ryan penalty soon after but, amazingly, that was to be the last score of the match as they held on under some intense pressure to win by 18-13.
Ryan said he was delighted to get the win. “It’s always a nice feeling coming off the pitch in front of the Saar army after a win. It may not have been the prettiest of victories but it was hard-earned so we’ll take it,” he added.
“We got off to a cracking start again so if we can manage to maintain that for 80 minutes then we’ll be flying it.
“We picked this period of three home games in a row as being crucial to our season so we’ve done the first part of the job and we have another two to go. If we can get three wins out of these three weeks then we’ll be right in contention come the business end of things.”
It was something of a festival of rugby at BRFC last weekend, with the annual GAC Midnight Vets Tens also taking place.
This year’s tournament featured teams from Sharjah, Riyadh, Khobar, Sri Lanka, Bahrain and the international invitational side the Vagabonds but it was the boys from Doha who took the spoils and they were duly presented with the trophy by tournament-organiser Mike Burton during the traditional Midnight Tens Gala Charity Dinner.
Dubai Exiles are the visitors to Saar this coming Friday in the latest round of the Gulf Top Six and Bahrain will be looking for more of the same from their team and supporters. Kick-off is set for 3pm and all are welcome to attend.
Friday will also see the club play host to a special family fun day organised in association with the Mums in Bahrain group in an effort to raise funds for a young expat in need of special hospital treatment abroad. The child’s family has requested no personal publicity in GulfWeekly and we respect their wishes. The activities will get underway from 2pm and all are welcome to attend.
