The 2006/7 Winter Championship's drawn out regular season finally came to a close at the weekend, with Balamand beating Club Libanais – and putting AUB into the final. All three sides were in contention for a final berth against LAU, with 'Showdown Sunday' pitting Club Libanais against Balamand, with AUB watching anxiously from the stands. A CL victory would have seen them advance to the final outright, while a Balamand win would have seen all three sides draw level on four points, with points difference the tie-breaker. Here, AUB held the advantage, courtesy of two tight losses and a big win against Balamand, who needed to win by 51 points to advance.

The weather – an atrocious blend of fog, freezing rain and biting winds contributed to a field resembling a chess board of freezing puddles – had cut the field from a three- to a two-horse race, with Balamand left with very little chance of racking up a half century. That left the northern outfit with only a chance of avenging their 20-12 loss to CL at home in December, and although they faced a scare when their resilient opponents made a late charge, Balamand was clearly the stronger side over 80 minutes.

Last season CL played the role of spoilers by upsetting NDU in the season's last match to hand LAU an unexpected finals berth. Quirkily, on Sunday an uncanny set of similar incidents repeated themselves, once more to CL's advantage. Last season, CL wing Naji Ramy single-handedly stopped three NDU scores by twice preventing the grounding of the football in the in-goal and then forcing a knock on over the goal-line. On Sunday, lightning struck twice as Balamand had three tries disallowed as desperate last ditch challenges saved CL. Two of those came early in a first half that was completely dominated by the northerners, thanks in part to CL's madcap tendency to force passes and offer only the weakest of kick chases, allowing Balamand fullback Riad Khoury ample space in which to counter. Balamand broke the deadlock when second row Omar Darwish's chip kick was gathered by debutant Mounib and grounded at the corner. The lead grew when Wael Tawil took a fine offload from Darwish to score under the sticks, with the loose forward converting his own try to make it 10-0 at the break.

With fresh squalls whipping across Bhamdoun in the second period both sides were driven on by sheer willpower alone, exemplified by the game's dominant forces, the two locks. Balamand's Tawil and CL's Youssef El Helou were at the forefront of the ball carry and tackling charts, and while some players' contribution to their respective sides' effort dwindled under the relentless storm, Tawil and El Helou maintained their work rate, the quality of which remained undimmed by the horrendous conditions.

Starting without scrum half Rany Chahoud, and having lost five-eight Roy Abla in the first half, Lebanon tourist El Helou grasped CL's reins. One of his breaks led to CL's first score. On fifth tackle a frantic interchange of passes between El Helou, hooker Hass Saleh and second row Ahmad Masri ended with a kick and chase which, after a Balamand fumble, the latter reached, applying downward pressure to put CL back in the hunt.

A few minutes later they cut the lead to two points after wing Mario Eid redeemed his many fumbles by securely planting the ball down to send anxiety levels among the assembled AUB spectators skyward. But on the next set a morale-sapping knock on by makeshift halfback Sol Mokdad presented Balamand with a rare chance to attack, and after an injudicious fly-hack handed Balamand a repeat set Tawil crashed over to score in the left corner, finishing off the match, and the regular season.