For the second time in two weeks AUB Wolves rattled up 40-points, but there were very few similarities between last week’s shoot-from-the-hip gunfight with LAU and this consummate dismantling of league-leaders Balamand. Whereas LAU’s defence had been porous and hesitant, Balamand’s was simply unable to handle the ball movement and support play of an AUB side that turned in arguably the best performance of the Bank of Beirut Rugby League Championship so far.

With a creative quartet of AUB stalwarts Karim Mourabet and Anthony Ghissen joined by newcomers Darren Kincaid, an Australian embassy employee, and Irishman Daniel Egan, an Arabic language student, the Wolves played with gay abandon, running Balamand ragged and setting a new mark for panache this season.

The ever-dangerous Wael Harb (pictured, above) flitted in and out of the attack from his fullback position, and his two long breaks led to the first two scores, from Megho Keychian in the 13^th minute and Harb himself four minutes later. Kincaid made it 14-0 when he tore through a gap off a lovely short ball from Egan, but the Razorbacks kept themselves within touching distance courtesy of Sami Mansour’s fine weaving run in the final minute.

With AUB’s pack well in control, the Wolves stretched their lead as they exerted more and more dominance over Balamand. Harb’s capitalized on a snoozing home defence when he hared up the short side to score on 43 minutes, then big Adel Kanso, who had a great match, took a hit-up on the burst to score. Balamand’s Wael Tawil pulled one back but it was the last score they would get.

Mounir Finan’s fantastic run on the left matched anything his front row partner Kanso had done, and the offload at the end put in rookie wing Mohamed Twil for his first try. Ghissen then showed his blistering pace as he went over from 60-metres against a tiring Balamand, while Kanso put the finishing touches to an impressive team performance with his second late on.

AUB will go into next Saturday’s match with Jounieh full of confidence, with the top four bunching up.