Jean Paul Zakhour registered his first win as Jounieh RLFC head coach on Saturday, but his maiden victory, a nervous 24-20 affair over AUB, was overshadowed by a stunning piece of theatre in sunny Bhamdoun. The match, although poor in quality, was certainly rich in the bizarre – with AUB at one point choosing to play with nine players before referee Naif Abisaid ordered the mandatory league minimum of 11 onto the field. This peculiar situation transpired midway through the second half, with the Wolves trailing by 24-4 and edging towards implosion. Aghast at proceedings, a group of the team’s senior players shocked all those present when they ordered their new players off the field – two of whom were then involved in an altercation on the bench - and decided to play on short-handed for a brief period before the rules breach was brought to the referee’s attention.   

After AUB coach Mikhael Shammas had once more deployed his full compliment of players the Wolves stormed back, and if time had not been against them may have pulled off the unlikeliest, and certainly the strangest, of comebacks, scoring four tries in the final 12 minutes. Second row Ibrahim Sawili sparked the revival after another bizarre passage of play. AUB Captain Anthony Ghossein re-gathered his speculative kicked down field, a tactic AUB had employed without much success throughout the match, with the bouncing ball this time beating Jounieh’s cover. Sawili dove over on the next tackle, his first try in four years. Five minutes later prop Mounir Finan scored his second of the game to put AUB to within two scores of a result. Wael Harb then used his blazing speed to score his eighth and ninth tries of the season in quick succession before time ran out.

It was the second time Jounieh had let slip a commanding position this season, something that will be a worry to Zakhour. On the positive side he was able to field his elite halfback combination of Danny Chemaly and Roy Abla for the first time, and while the pair didn’t exploit Al-Galacticos’ attacking positions as well they might, there were enough positive signs to promise more for the future. The ever dependable Pierre Nasr scored the two tries he needed to take him past Lubnan Alamuddine into fourth position on the all-time try-scoring chart, with 40 four-pointers. Barring injury the incumbent Liban Espoir captain has every chance to move into second this season, with LAU fullback Jawad Fakih’s mark of 48 tries his target. Nasr’s 5^th minute opener was followed in the 12^th minute by Ghassan Dandash’s try as Al-Galacticos hogged possession against a frustratingly wasteful AUB. Nasr’s double came in the 18^th minute but AUB scored the try of the half when Finan was on the end of a swaggering attacking foray to touch down in the corner.

Dandash restored Jounieh’s predominance on 46 minutes, benefiting from a second-man play, while boom forward Ahmad Al Masri crashed over in his favourite right-hand corner to make it 24-4.