A strong defensive display by Jounieh RLFC underpinned an accomplished and important victory over sliding Balamand on Friday evening. Al-Galacticos, who blew a big lead last week against LAU, were not about to make the same mistake on successive weekends, their well-marshaled and motivated defence ensuring that Balamand, playing its first championship match without influential play-maker Omar Darwich and experienced stand off Gilbert Haydamous following their departures to Sydney and Germany respectively, were unable to spark while their forwards were overpowered by the Al-Galacticos pack.

Second row Nabil Dora, playing in the centres, put down Jounieh’s marker with the opening tackle of the match, hammering big Balamand prop Nizar Azzam with one of the hits of the season on the kick return. The collisions kept coming, with second row Hassan Merouwe distinguishing himself with arguably his best display this year. Coach Jean Paul Zakhour’s injury-enforced backline reshuffle, with Dora’s fellow back row Ahmad El Masri making a rare appearance on the wing, meant a conservative Jounieh game-plan, but dominance in the middle of the field was enough to register a second straight win against the northerners. Lock Youssef El Helou combined well with hooker Fady Azzam all evening, while Pierre Nasr and Ghassan Dandash constantly probed the Razorbacks’ hard-pressed defence, which had to endure the loss of boom prop Abdel Kader Jamal El-Dine and centre Najy Bassil through injury.

El Masri scored twice, the match opener a scrappy try following a Dandash off-load, then a barnstorming second-half effort which left six Balamand players in his wake. Azzam scored a short range first half try following a long Dandash break, and a side-stepping second, along with scrum half Danny Chemaly, in the second period. Balamand, facing a stark creative crisis, looked to loose forward Wael Tawil, hooker Firas El Mir and fullback Riad Khoury for direction, but although all three played well, the lack of imagination in attack will present coach Mohamed Habbous with a challenge as Balamand looks to stay with rivals AUB and Jounieh. The northerners have won only one of their last five outings – and that against perennial lambs to the slaughter USJ – losing those four matches by an average score-line of 31-8. The early season pace-setters, who opened up with four consecutive wins, face an important clash with AUB on Saturday as the battle for post season take shape.