Balamand came back from last week?s club record loss to let their rivals know they are still in for a fight for the finals. They were helped along their way on Saturday afternoon by an early error by the USJ Saints, who were unable to deal with a touchline bomb at the end of Balamand's first set, with the loose ball snaffled by lock Wael Tawil who scored in the corner.

The Saints, without four key players, including forward Khaled Rifai who begins a four match suspension for shoving a referee last week, hit back immediately, with stand-off Remond Safi putting prolific center Hanna Hajjar through a gap in the 7th minute.

The visiting northerners blew the game wide open with two tries in three-minutes. First, scrum half Firas El Mir raced in directly from a scrum 40-metres out, then, on 20 minutes, center Sami Mansour went over after two offside penalties had given Balamand a chance to stage another attack. Although the Safi-Hajjar combination cut the lead to 14-10, Balamand, would not be behind again. When USJ dropped the ball over the line in the last minute of the half, their best chance to get back into the game had gone begging.

Perhaps still ruing that chance, the league?s basement side let in two tries early in the second period, with second row James Chahine and fullback Riad Khoury marking for the Razorbacks and Tawil converting twice. Safi was then denied his moment of glory when his jinking run through Balamand?s line was called back for an offside penalty, but on

57 minutes the former Belmore Boys star turned provider again, combining with wing Patrick Leptani who went in at the right corner. 

Trailing 26-14, USJ had the chance to get back to within striking distance only for the veteran halfback combination of Faysal Jaber-Safi to squander a chance through errant passing.

Balamand was not so profligate, with Khoury nabbing his second on 73 minutes, although USJ had the last word, scoring a fine try out wide through Christian Nadir.