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IT’S a case of keeping the momentum going for Bahrain Rugby Football Club as the team notched a crucial victory away at major rivals Abu Dhabi Harlequins.
The team got its West Asia Premiership campaign off to the best possible start on Friday night as they gained maximum points away to their fellow title contenders, just a week after claiming their first silverware of the season by beating the same opponents in the Asia Western Clubs Champions League.
The 14-24 bonus point victory was a first league win for Bahrain over the mighty ’Quins in nine seasons but one that came at a considerable cost as frontline backs Nick Annear, Ross Preedy and Greg Heath all suffered potentially significant injuries.
Coach Louie Tonkin believes this was a significant first step towards the ultimate goal of lifting the league title. He said: “This is a fantastic result away at one of the big teams in the division.
“We built on the game last week and put in an even stronger performance.
“The focus now is on harvesting this momentum and carrying it forwards. We have a home game against Dubai Eagles next week and they are vastly improved on last season and have recruited well in the summer.
“They kept Hurricanes to one score last week with 14 men on the field for 70 minutes. We’ll be focusing on improving our performances over the previous week and be dedicated towards putting out a well-organised and well-drilled effort. With backing from our brilliant fans, we hope it’ll be enough.”
From Callum Roberts’ superb take off the first kick-off, the visitors dominated the opening quarter, with man-of-the-match Sunia Fameitau barging over for the opening try after just seven minutes.
The lead was extended five minutes later as Dai Evans touched down a delightful chip through by Preedy, although the latter was just off target with his second conversion attempt.
The inevitable response from the hosts came just after the 20-minute mark as they crashed over through the forwards and Bahrain were then dealt a double blow as half-backs Annear and Preedy went down in quick succession.
Annear manfully played on, with Deina Morete shifting in to fly-half, and they struck for another try through back Phillips down the left, which Morete coolly converted.
There was still time for Quins to tag on another converted try to make it 14-19 before the half-time whistle arrived to the relief of both teams.
The second period was a fairly tight affair, with little in the way of clear try-scoring chances for either side, as Bahrain heroically defended an onslaught of pressure and ’Quins unusually missed a number of kickable penalties.
With only minutes remaining on the clock, another timely turnover for Bahrain relieved the pressure and set up the break from which Phillips crossed for his second and the game’s decisive score to round out a huge result for his side.
Tonkin is under no illusions that the team will have to dig deep at times throughout the season has wear and tear kicks in. He explained: “The squad isn’t used to playing back-to-back games in successive weeks, so we have a few injuries. Four of them are medium-term – looking at four-to-six weeks out – and a couple of others are bumps and bruises which will be a week or two.
“The nature of the beast is that when players get injured, others in the squad get opportunities and this is what we want in a squad. Following Eagles we have Exiles and Dragons away, both really tough games, so we’ll need our entire squad to step up for those.”
A big home crowd is expected to fill the new stand again to watch the action against Dubai Eagles. Kick-off will be 5pm at Bahrain Rugby Football Club in Janabiya.
