Camels 1 continue unbeaten run

Camels 1 continued their unbeaten run in the Qatar Rugby Sevens when they beat their junior counterparts Camels 2 38-5 at the Aspire Warm Up Track on Saturday night.
In the match labelled ‘mate against mate’, Camels 1 proved too strong for Camels 2, who were the first to take a lead against Camels 1 in the tournament so far, but their big brothers were too good and took the bragging rights.
Three minutes into the seven minute half the score was deadlocked at nil all.  Much to everybody’s surprise it was Camels 2 utility Rakan Mutawaa who turned defence into attack after a strong set of phases.
A nice outside ball from Mubarak Malik sent him over for the first points of the game. The conversion was unsuccessful and Camels1 were in disarray finding themselves trailing 5 nil for the first time in this competition.
The Camels top side struck back one minute from half time with play maker and captain Lliese Rakabu going over under the black dot after breaking through the Camel 2’s fickle defense. Aaron McLelland converted the kick to give the top side an early 7-5 lead.
The second half began with same intensity and will power but it was Camel 1’s flare and style that started to shine. The combination of Rakabu, McLelland and Greg Evans proved to be lethal as the Camels 1 piled on 31 unanswered points to take the match 38 -5.
The second match for Camels 1 was a one-sided encounter over the North Atlantic boys. The competition leaders blew away their opponents 50 – nil.
Camels 1 captain Rakabu later said, “They (Camels 2) gave us a fright in the opening minutes when they scored first. They controlled the first half but seemed to crumble in the second. We capitalized on every opportunity, and in the end we came to win and that’s what we did.”
Man of the Match Mutawaa said, “Sure it’s hard to lose. I really thought we had them in the first half. I scored first and they barely responded until the last few seconds before half time. After the break we made very silly mistakes and that’s all they needed. Their power, strength and knowledge of the game is impressive still we could have beaten them had we controlled the ball and didn’t miss tackles.”
DRFC Hurricanes seem to have finally found their stride as they posted huge deficit points against their rivals. They showed no mercy in their opening match against the Blue Falcons by blocking them out 52-nil and thumping the North Atlantic boys 40 nil.
Hurricanes captain Issac Banks scored four tries for the night and had a hand in three others. He later said, “We targeted both of these games as must-wins with large margins to get up our points differential which could be very important coming into the back end of the season. We are very happy we managed 92 points in the two games tonight”.
In other matches, Al Khor was too strong for CNAQ beating them 31-5 but couldn’t get past Camels 2, who won 29 -nil.
Commenting after the nights proceedings Qatar Rugby boss Yousef al-Kuwari said, “After three rounds, you can see the standard is starting to pick up. Teams are becoming acquainted with each other’s play and as a result we are getting better rugby.”
He added, “The final selection of the national sevens team will be confirmed early tomorrow morning. I believe we have players from four different clubs all of whom are playing in our league.”
The Qatar Rugby Sevens national squad will travel next week to Al Ain, UAE, to take part in the Asia Rugby Development Sevens. The two-day event will see twelve teams competing for the title including Iran, Lebanon, UAE, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and India.
The winner of the Al Ain men’s series will win a place for their union to participate in the Asia Rugby Sevens series 2016, which will feature three legs later this year.