Results and Match Reports
Click on Match for report
Click on Match for report
Riyadh 67 - 0 Jeddah - 3 Mar 11
A comprehensive performance by the Riyadh Falcons earned them a well deserved 67-0 victory over an inexperienced Jeddah side in Riyadh on 3 Mar 11. The visitors had brought 17 players, however, some had never played a game of 15s Rugby before, having only played 7s. Depsite their lack of experience, the Jeddah youngsters kept going to the end of the match, and were warmly applauded by Riyadh for their commitment and discipline, despite being on the wrong end of a thumping defeat.
The match started off evenly, with Riyadh expecting Jeddah to be very strong, especially in the 9, 10 and 12 positions. An early penalty taken well by Riyadh Fly Half Tim Jardine settled the nerves and from then on with some outstanding Riyadh forward play, it was pretty much one way traffic as Riyadh probed the weaknesses of the Jeddah defence. At the break, Riyadh were 22-0 up, but Coach Simon Hill was not happy with the way the team were failing to capitalise on their opportunities, especially with some less than satisfactory handling from the backs. With the instruction to keep it simple and move the ball along the back line, Riyadh pounced from the off, setting up a superb try for winger Keith Croft. Now into their stride, Riyadh continued to score freely. The platform given by the tight 5, which resulted in them all being awarded Man of the Match, enabled the backs to exploit Jeddah deficiencies and mistakes. The pressure on the Jeddah scrum was too much for them to bear, and in the interests of safety, referee Ray Meerloo took the sensible decision to make the scrums uncontested. While this gave Jeddah some respite, and the ability to retain their own scrummage ball, Riyadh never let up, scoring another 6 tries, and finishing off with 10 in the bag. Defensively, Riyadh were outstanding, missing only a couple of tackles throughout the game. A raft of changes from the 50 minute point onwards gave Riyadh a more direct approach and proved that the current strength and depth in the Riyadh squad will ensure the team remains a force to be reckoned with for the immediate future.
Riyadh:
Tries: Karim Mourabet, Yann Doiteaux, Keith Croft, Dave Faughnan, Tim Jardine, James Greyling, Dan Keogh, Herbert van der Merwe (3)
Conversions: Tim Jardine (4), Taff Williams (3)
Penaties: Tim Jardine
The match started off evenly, with Riyadh expecting Jeddah to be very strong, especially in the 9, 10 and 12 positions. An early penalty taken well by Riyadh Fly Half Tim Jardine settled the nerves and from then on with some outstanding Riyadh forward play, it was pretty much one way traffic as Riyadh probed the weaknesses of the Jeddah defence. At the break, Riyadh were 22-0 up, but Coach Simon Hill was not happy with the way the team were failing to capitalise on their opportunities, especially with some less than satisfactory handling from the backs. With the instruction to keep it simple and move the ball along the back line, Riyadh pounced from the off, setting up a superb try for winger Keith Croft. Now into their stride, Riyadh continued to score freely. The platform given by the tight 5, which resulted in them all being awarded Man of the Match, enabled the backs to exploit Jeddah deficiencies and mistakes. The pressure on the Jeddah scrum was too much for them to bear, and in the interests of safety, referee Ray Meerloo took the sensible decision to make the scrums uncontested. While this gave Jeddah some respite, and the ability to retain their own scrummage ball, Riyadh never let up, scoring another 6 tries, and finishing off with 10 in the bag. Defensively, Riyadh were outstanding, missing only a couple of tackles throughout the game. A raft of changes from the 50 minute point onwards gave Riyadh a more direct approach and proved that the current strength and depth in the Riyadh squad will ensure the team remains a force to be reckoned with for the immediate future.
Riyadh:
Tries: Karim Mourabet, Yann Doiteaux, Keith Croft, Dave Faughnan, Tim Jardine, James Greyling, Dan Keogh, Herbert van der Merwe (3)
Conversions: Tim Jardine (4), Taff Williams (3)
Penaties: Tim Jardine
Al-Khobar Quins 7 - 0 Riyadh Falcons - 21 Oct 10
TOA Dubai 86 - 0 Riyadh Falcons - 10 Sep 09
TOA Dubai Men 86 - Riyadh 0
The TOA Dubai men's side celebrated their first ever match with a clinical and well constructed victory over the visiting Riyadh team 86-0.
The visitors from Saudi Arabia had no answers to the pace and power of the TOA team, who announced their arrival to Gulf rugby in fine fashion running in 14 tries and sounding a warning out to their future opponents in both the Emirates League and the Gulf Cup. Captain and coach Andrew Fa'avale-Tuala was pleased with the win but stressed to his team to keep a level head going into their match against Al Ain in a weeks time.
"Putting this all into perspective it was a win but history was made here tonight. It was TOA's first ever game, first ever win and the teamsheet was dominated by 10 Arab born players of which 6 were local Emirati" Fa'avale-Tuala says "The important thing is to stay humble and go back to training next week and work harder than we did last week. The key is to keep on improving and keep on enjoying regardless of the result."
John Mamea-Wilson, the founder of the club was also happy with the result and paid credit to the more experienced players in the team.
"Obviously having Trevor (Leota) and AP (Apollo Perelini) was a huge talking point in the lead up to the match but everybody contributed and these young guys will take a lot of confidence into our next match." says Mamea-Wilson
"The best thing was that a lot of people came down to watch these two legends play but they got the added bonus of witnessing some raw talent that wasn't Samoan or Kiwi or English but they were Arabs."
In the meantime both Fa'avale-Tuala and Mamea-Wilson must now combine icing their sore knees with working out the TOA Men's game plan leading into the Al Ain match as well as keep building up the TOA Ladies side into another formidable force with their season due to begin on October 9th.