With the France Serbia game abandoned after 26 minutes, match day two of the Mediterranean Cup stood on a razors edge. The neglect and incompetence of the Lebanese sports ministry had left Tripoli’s Olympic stadium in pitch darkness. The French, ahead 18-4 when the referee called off the game for bad light, were given the result as a win, while the Lebanon Morocco fixture that was scheduled to follow was left in the balance.
In the end, only a direct intervention from Lebanese President Lahoud enabled the match to continue. Lebanon again fielded a side filled with local talent, and the game was a hard fought physical battle. Toufiq Nicolas again played solidly at fullback, scoring two tries and kicking six of nine goals in a game filled with open play. The Cedars made plenty of yards with good breaks and good running, but repeatedly tried to force the extra pass, enabling Morocco to stem the tide. Tommy Mansour did a lot of good work around the ruck, with Ahmad El Masri again looking dangerous out wide. Defensively Lebanon played well making plenty of open field tackles and denying the Moroccans at the goal line on a few occasions. George Azzi put in some ferocious tackles and Sami Halabi was often in the thick of the action.
The Moroccans were only down 10-4 after Illias Lamarti scored in the 20th minute and made plenty of good running, with slick handling skills often on show. Lamarti’s try was answered by four in quick succession, as the Moroccans repeatedly gave Lebanon good field position attempting short restarts.
In the second half Morocco finally silenced the Lebanon attack after Ahmed El Masri’s 47th minute try, and then went on to add two more tries of their own, from Jimmy Jean and Mustapha Mahfoudi, in the 60th and 74th minute.