August 23 2005 Vale of Lune, Powder House Lane, Lancaster	England Lionhearts
Liban Espoir	0 26

Liban Espoir, the emerging Lebanon team representing the Lebanese domestic league, kicked off their UK tour on Tuesday with an encouraging performance against England Lionhearts.

A modest crowd of 300 braved the wet and windy Powder House Lane, Lancaster to watch the Lionhearts, boasting the cream of the talent playing in the Rugby League Conference, boss the opening exchanges against the young Lebanese team whose average age was just 21.

England prop Harry Heasman set the agenda for the home side with a powerful drive from kick off into the heart of the Lebanese defence. Ricocheting off defenders, Heasman played the ball quickly to hooker Chris Spiers who set up hard-working second rower Carl Leach to keep Lebanon on the backfoot.

The Lionhearts proceeded to make the ideal start, with the first score of the game soon coming from the England right-winger Craig Campbell who raced along the eastern terrace to register the first of his brace of tries in the corner of the ground. 4-0.

Lebanon kicked off once more, but conceded another try in quick succession, with England taking advantage of Lebanon’s compressed defensive formation to spin the ball out to the left flank. David West appropriately dived over between winger and centre in front of the western grandstand to the approval of the home crowd. 8-0.

After a third try was conceded with just 10 minutes gone, fears that a capitulation was on the cards were very real, but Lebanon fought their way back into the game after a pressure relieving knock-on from the Lionhearts.

The captain of the shell-shocked Lebanese team, scrum half Jad Abinassif, managed to re-gather his troops and orchestrate some steady territorial advances against the Lionhearts with drives from George Helou and Antoine Samarani.

A further Lionhearts knock-on from an attempted ball steal saw the visitors enjoy a repeated set of possession and a chance to exert some pressure on the Lionhearts’ line.

Lebanese substitute Youssef El Helou made good yards after taking the inside pass from Abinassif, but was hauled up short of the line by some aggressive England defence.

Lebanon continued to hammer England with 17-year-old loose forward from Balamand University Alan Sultan becoming increasingly prominent with powerful attacking runs.

A Lebanon penalty on the fifth tackle once again gave the opportunity to register points for the visitors, but was promptly followed by a knock-on handing the initiative back to England.

At this stage of the game, Lebanon were looking much less fragile after having had some solid time in possession with which to come to terms with their opponents. England played out their set with stand-off Paul Lord kicking and finding touch on the last.

From the scrum Lebanon made good yards upfield, and were awarded a penalty for the holding down of pacy winger Naji Bassil. Lebanon found themselves once again applying pressure on England just a few yards short of the try line. Some desperate defence held Lebanon out as the Abinassif and Sultan tried different ways in which to unlock the England defence.

A stray pass from stand-off Wassim Moumneh saw England Winger Craig Campell first to the loose ball, only to knock on with the open field ahead of him.

Once again the increasingly confident Lebanon team applied pressure but crucially were unable to penetrate the England defensive line. On the fifth the high kick was fielded by full back Richard Whitehouse who against the run of play broke through the Lebanon team to go 80 yards to score under the posts.