Having spent the opening two months of the season equal bottom of the table, AUB, like a long distance runner pacing himself before a late surge, hit top spot on Saturday with a withering dismantling of struggling Jounieh that left Al-Galacticos a broken wreck in their wake. Only an impossible set of results between LAU and Balamand – with both needing to win one of their remaining two matches against each other, and Balamand needing to overcome a 241 for-and-against deficit when going head-to-head with AUB - can now prevent the Wolves from claiming a post-season spot, but it is more than likely the West Beirut outfit will finish first, with their final match in three weeks against lowly USJ Saints. If LAU beats Balamand twice they will claim first place and an automatic berth in the May 24^th Bank of Beirut Rugby League Championship final, leaving AUB to face either Balamand or Jounieh in the semi-final. But so close has the run-in to the season been that both those sides can still finish first.

AUB coach Faysal Jaber, still holding a perfect record since taking over from Mikhael Shammas in April, will hardly be worrying about such mathematical permutations though. His team is purring like a classic Chrysler V8 engine and has hit top speed at the right end of the season. Frighteningly for Jounieh it could have been much worse if a knee injury hadn’t prevented Wael Harb from playing, yet even without the league’s leading scorer AUB made a mockery of the competition’s stingiest defence.

The writing was on the wall as early as the 6^th minute when Al-Galacticos wing Khalil Hijjal off-loaded desperately on first tackle deep inside his own half. AUB centre Hashem El Hoss picked up the loose ball and touched down in the corner. Jounieh, missing four first choice forwards and both halfbacks, and losing Hijjal to a knee injury and big prop Amer Hachem with a dislocated shoulder in the course of the game, not to mention centre Rodrigue Kyriakidis, who was sent off for punching in the second half, suffered horrifically in the early evening sunshine. AUB’s watertight defence kept Al-Galacticos pinned inside their own half for almost all of the first period, and turned Jounieh’s only two promising attacks into length-of-the-field scores by wing Akram Al Chamaa and impressive fullback Megho Keychian, ending the half 23-0 to the good.

Led by second row Elie Khoury, Jounieh scored first in the second period, through debutant Hussein Hammoud, but they were a beaten side, outclassed physically and mentally by the Corniche-siders. Veteran five-eighth Darren Kinnaird sliced through on 57 minutes, then Karim Mourabet went in from close range before Keychian and Al Chamaa added two long range efforts inside the final five minutes to complete the massacre.

The victory saw the championship lead change hands for the first time since 12^th January, when LAU seized top spot from Balamand. Jounieh, who trailed LAU in second place for much of the previous four months, now face two must-win games against improving USJ. They will be desperate to recall their injured players and get a settled halfback combination. AUB, for whom desperation is a long forgotten word, have two weeks off until their final match, with Jaber safely able to plot their approach to the May finals.