Saturday August 18th, 2007 Belgrade, Serbia
Liban Espoir	50 0	SERBIA

LLiban Espoir romped to its biggest ever win on Saturday against a young, brave but utterly outgunned Serbian Developmental squad on the outskirts of Belgrade. Playing in picture perfect conditions on the lawn-like FC Radnicki pitch, the Espoirs revelled in the wide open spaces, cutting loose after their bitterly fought two-point victory against the Serbian national team on Wednesday.

Halfback Roy Abla orchestrated his team around the park with aplomb, with seven of his side's eleven tries being scored by backs, while the side's trademark defence was as ruthless and impregnable as ever. For the second time in as many matches the Espoirs were gifted the best possible start when Serbian jitters resulted in a dropped kick off. But where Lebanon had been unsychronised and nervous early on against Serbia, they were meticulous and relaxed against the Development XIII. Stand-off Omar Darwiche angled across the line from the scrum base before feeding Rudi Hachache to score. Lebanon's eading points scorer would go on to repeat his four-try feat registered last July on Liban Espoirs' Cypriot tour.

Hachache and rookie wing Wael Harb shared the next three tries, with Harb's searing pace a constant threat out wide. But the feature of the game was the inter-play between the visitors as they clicked into a groove. AUB props Mounir Finan and Adel Kanso were a handful up front, while back rowers Wael Tawil, Ibrahim Ballout and Youssef El Helou were magnificent on both sides of the ball. With total forward supremacy, Abla was able to combine with Darwiche at will. Left wing Gilbert Haydamous scored after some fine handling to make the halftime score 26-0.

In the second period centre Najy Bassil got the first of his brace after a wonderful looped pass from Abla, while Robin Hachache moved to centre following two more injuries, to exemplary hooker Darwiche Darwiche (broken leg) and prop Amin Maassarani (knee ligaments), was the beneficiary of an intricate sequence of second man plays, executed to perfection by the cruising Lebanese.

Abla got on the score sheet himself late in the game, dummying on the inside before stepping off his right, slicing through the Serbian defence and racing over from twenty metres out.

Head coach Remond Safi was effusive in his praise: "I was very impressed with the side. We stuck to our game plan with the ball getting out wide far more than it did against Serbia. It?s a shame we lost Darwich and Amin in the first half, but our replacement hooker, Fadi [Azzam], was up to the task."