In the men’s match that followed, Italy found a winning score ten minutes from time to defeat the Ceders 16-14. Fullback Jack Piccirilli – who had opened the scoring for the Italians - converted Jackson Lenzo’s second try to claim the victory after Lebanon had led 8-4 at the break.

Bilal El Youssef put Lebanon back in the lead after Lenzo had posted his opening score, Lenzo responding immediately for the winner in a tight encounter. Italy men’s coach, Leo Epifania, noted: “It could have gone either way, but we stuck together and found a way to win. Lebanon challenged us to the end, and we’ve built up a good rivalry.”

Lebanon head coach, Michael Habib, said: “We were a little unlucky losing our half-back Kade Moujalli after four minutes to an ankle injury, and backrower Josh Maree soon after with a shoulder problem. We made too many handling errors and incompletions, but to our credit we were still in the game in the final moments.”