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St.
Josephs School has been crowned the LRLF 2013 Lebanon GMEA Schools
Champions. Namouzaj Public School fell to a 36-6 defeat to the Beirut
schoolboys in the Final at St. Josephs School Cornet Chahwan Green
Field.
The visitors were outscored by seven tries to one in a game which
saw them fail to replicate the form that saw them take out the GMEA
North School Championship the previous week.
Namouzaj got off to a bright start and were in control of a very
physical game until the 17 minute mark, when St. Joseph’s winger Elie
Azzi managed to round his opposite man and cross out wide to give his
team a 4-0 lead after the conversion attempt sailed wide of the post.
Namouzaj regrouped and turned up the heat and forced the home side
into error after error. The North team’s pressure was rewarded with a
bulldozing try by Khaled Mekan to take a surprising but deserved 6-4
lead.
An arm wrestle developed during the next phase of the game with both
teams throwing everything at their opponents and leaving nothing to
chance. Tempers began to fray as the solid defense took its toll on both
sides. And it wasn’t just those on the field that were feeling the
heat. Both team coaches were sent to the stands to cool their heels for
the reaming of the match.
St. Josephs were able to cross the try line just before the break through Richard Haddad and hit the shields 10-6 up.
The second half began in a similar fashion to the first with both
sides embroiled in a physical battle which the visiting side was
dominating, but it was a case of déjà vu as the home team scored first
again. In fact St. Josephs shot into sixth gear as Namouzaj struggled to
respond and the home side quickly opened up a 26 - 6 margin within a
whirlwind ten minute spell.
Haddad found himself crossing the line again on the 35 minute mark
after he found a gap to squeeze through under the posts and just four
minutes later Imad Chiatair was adjudged to have touched the ball down
in the corner despite dubious calls from the sidelines.
On the 45 minute mark Abdo Mallah stepped inside two defenders to
add his name to the scorers list and give his side a commanding lead.
Namouzaj tried to get the on the score board with ten minutes remaining in the game, but were rebuffed on several occasions.
The speedy half-back then completed a hat-trick when he pounded on an English error.
The Saints Jonas Muata scored the try of the game with five minutes
left on the clock when he was on hand to outsmart the defense and
complete an 80 meter effort that sent those on and off the field into
early celebration mode.
St. Josephs Coach Nayed Abi Said has lauded his side's renewed
toughness, "I thought it was the toughest we've played all season. When
you play in finals, you always have borderline contests, but that's the
game and that's how physical you've got to play. You've got to test
those boundaries sometimes, so the guys certainly put their bodies on
the line in the first quarter and they set it up for the rest of the
match. We didn't focus on too much during the week, apart from getting
our starts right, and to do that you've got to be able to bring a
physical presence, because we knew they were going to bring it to us. He
added, “I am extremely pleased for the players, the supporters and the
entire school”.
Namouzaj Coach Nader Mgheit praised his players and said, “The boys
will take plenty of positives out of the game. The score doesn’t show
the true effort of the boys as I didn’t even know if we were going to
have enough players to field a team today because of the crises in the
Tripoli area. Some of the boys had to sneak alone the streets under
sniper fire just to get to the pickup point, while others just couldn’t
risk it.” He went on to praise their true love of the game and a special
mention to Captain Omar Marhaba. “If it wasn’t for Omar, we wouldn’t
have turned up today as he rounded them up one by one.” They are all
winners in my eyes.”
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