Greece survived a late Poland comeback to win their men’s senior international 38-34 at St Mary’s, Sydney. Played in blistering heat, fans were treated to a fast-paced encounter that was in doubt to the end.

Poland started strongly, centre Tynan Forster crossing, James Kikkinos replying. Two tries from player of the match Jake Kambos gave Greece a 16-12 half time lead, Jesse Nable and Mitchell Shaw with his second try bringing Poland back into contention but scores from Nick Pantelis, Samuel Stratis and Nick and Rob Tuliatu seemed to have put Greece in control. 

Poland’s fightback began with a 40/20 from player/coach Harry Siejka, Thomas Noble charging over and a late effort from Archie Donnelly bringing them to within striking distance, but Greece held on for the final two minutes to secure the win.

Greece coach, Jim Pizanias, commented: “Both nations showcase a high skill level in very hot conditions. We only had four training sessions together to get to know each other, and I thought we did well considering. It was a very entertaining game with both teams coming from behind at different stages and we just held them off in the end.”

Siejka noted: “The boys showed enormous effort in the heat and never stopped competing. That 40/20 gave us a lift and showed the kind of determination we pride ourselves on. We started strongly and got to a lead and then, due to the weight of possession from errors and a few penalties conceded, Greece capitalised and scored points. We did well to come back at the end, but time just ran out. We’ll take a lot of positives from this game into our next campaign.”