Ahmed Hammoud’s 80^th minute winner provided a dramatic climax to an exciting game between the top two in the Bank of Beirut Rugby League Championship on Saturday lunchtime. The LAU utility, who had opened the match with a try on the first set, book-ended it with his decisive intervention as the Immortals snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and extended their lead at the top of the table to five points. The thrilling denouement saw both sides ride the rollercoaster of fortune, with AUB’s car derailing and leaving the shattered Wolves scattered on their backs after Hammoud’s larceny. Having worked so hard to fight back from the wrong side of a 22-10 halftime score, AUB, leading 30-28, simply needed to run out the clock. But the otherwise impressive Christopher Hobaiche, one of a number of up-and-coming young Wolves forwards, dropped the ball on a straightforward hit up. An offside penalty then compounded the error, but LAU scrum half Karim Jamal decided to attack the short side himself and was bundled into touch. Having been pardoned once AUB, inexcusably, repeat offended. Direct from the scrum, veteran Australian centre Darren Kinnaird lost the ball in the tackle, and three rucks later Hammoud was in.

The cut-and-thrust finale was fair representation of a match that, although scrappy, was seldom dull. Played in the smaller Nijmeh football field due to Bhamdoun once again being snowed out, both sides were guilty of some poor decision making, best exemplified by the indifferent Jamal. The talented halfback, whose 14-point haul means he has scored 36-points in two weeks, flattered to deceive, failing in most things he tried with ball in hand, inept tactically and clearly outplayed by AUB’s creative unit. Jamal’s goal-kicking, however, was as accurate as ever, upholding his 83 per cent success rate and proving the difference between the two sides.

That difference, though, was slender. If anything, AUB played marginally the better football in the confined space, with Egan combining well with the dangerous Kinnaird, the former bagging an 80-metre interception that put AUB up by 26-22 in the second period, the latter notching a try in each half, while both sets of forwards fairly nullified one another. AUB twice hit back in the first half but at 10-10 LAU scored two tries, through Jamal and Mohamed Jamil. The LAU captain could have extended LAU’s lead after he brushed off AUB fullback Megho Keychian in midfield, only to be bundled over the dead-ball line by the chasing Akram Al Chamaa. It was the kind of never-say-die attitude that best sums up the Immortals’ relentless approach to football, a spirit that was very much to the fore on Saturday.