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Bahrain Rugby Football Club (BRFC) teams reigned supreme on home soil at the weekend, as they captured four of the winners’ trophies on offer at the Bahrain HSBC Junior Rugby Festival.
In fact it was only the Abu Dhabi Harlequins Under-14 side that prevented a Bahrain clean sweep across all age categories.
On a sweltering hot day at the BRFC in Saar, the tournament didn’t get off to the best of starts for the host club as the Bahrain Whites lost to the Arabian Knights in the opening match of the Under-10 competition.
However, the boys responded in fantastic fashion to see off club-mates Bahrain Reds and Doha to earn a rematch with the Knights in the final.
Fittingly, they saved their best performance for the final and recorded an emphatic victory to lift the first trophy of the day, with Doha finishing in third place and Bahrain Reds in fourth.
Meanwhile, in the Under-8 competition, after a free-scoring series of group matches, the final pairings saw Bahrain Reds and Doha Maroons face-off for top spot and Bahrain Whites and Doha Whites do battle for third.
The Reds produced some cracking running rugby in the final to secure their first win in two years over the close rivals and with it the title.
The Bahrain Whites then continued to build on the momentum as they defeated the Doha Whites.
The Under-14 competition saw the Harlequins tackle Bahrain Whites and Bahrain Reds but it was the visitors who emerged victorious in an entertaining series of Sevens matches.
The Abu Dhabi outfit won all four matches, with Bahrain Whites beating the Reds to second place.
In the Under-16 group Bahrain and Doha shared a win a piece in their two matches. The title was decided on points aggregate and Bahrain’s winning margin of four points compared to Doha’s win by two points was enough to see them lift the trophy.
In the final Under-18 competition, the home side showed some of the touches of class they had displayed at last year’s Dubai Sevens as they conjured up a 2-0 series victory.
In addition to the success of the home teams, Bahrain players Youssef Nakhla, Daan van der Werff, Alex Egan, Lorenzo Fantechi, Gavin Wilkie and Johnathon Harrison were all selected, by the referees and opposition coaches, as recipients of the HSBC Fair Play/Player-of-the-tournament Awards.
