"To say the lads are ecstatic understates the case," shouted Shaun Nicholls in a telephone interview over the sound of celebrations on the touchline moments after the match had ended. "They were the better team on the day and grimly held off the Lebanese in a very toughly contested game at the critical moment."
The Camels’ account was opened by Daley Herselman after a well-practiced series of rapid-fire passes unleashed him to steam in over the Lebanese line for a corner try.
"The Lebanese center who was always going to be a problem showed his mettle and literally ran around us with a 40-meter cross field sprint that took him completely around us to start their scoring," said Camels' coach Chris Ratcliffe. He added that the game turned into something of a scramble for most of the rest of the half as both sides fought desperately for ascendancy. "On the stroke of half time, Bisha Shehaibi broke through to score in a kickable position and the try was converted four minutes into extra time making it 10-4 to us."
On the restart before the half time whistle, the Lebanese center pulled a repeat performance of his wide run and touched down bringing the score to 10-8 to the Camels at the whistle.
At the interval the coaches of both teams did some serious talking as the tension rose in what was turning into a serious revenge match for the Camels, still smarting from their defeat in September.
The Lebanese came out fighting and ran in another converted try soon after the restart putting them in the lead for the first time at 14-10. Defending strongly, they kept the Camels out of their 22-meter area and seemed as if they were going to camp out there. However, the Camels’ Al-Moukhtar seized the only opportunity of a slight inattention in the Lebanese defense and scampered through to score a corner try.
A few minutes later the final whistle blew and the celebrations began — but not for the referee who seeing a draw initially called for extra time. However, league rules prevailed and once they were drawn to his attention, the trophy was securely in Saudi Arabia's hands.
The Saudi team returned bruised, proud and cheerful late last night to Jeddah clutching the silver-plated Middle East North Africa Under-16s Championship trophy hard won and hugely appreciated.