MENA UNDER-16 GAME 1
Lebanon lost the opening match of the MENA Under-16 Championship, collapsing almost immediately after the visiting Saudi Schools Select scored in the first minute of the second half, through Egyptian front row Kareem Salim.

Tries followed from the visitors’ captain, Hakeem Al Moukhtar - a Saudi national in a team made up of nine different nationalities - Karim Basri and Omar Al Fowly. The Saudis, unbeaten in MENA rugby league since the opening match in 2009, led by only two points at the break.

Lebanon coach Nader Mgheit was shocked after witnessing the capitulation: “we suffered from a total lack of preparation. We had no training fields due to poor weather. Defensively I can’t understand why we played so badly. The players are much better when they play for their schools.”

LEBANON U16
Maamoun Soufer, Georges Farah, Yehya Hussein, Karim Damaa, Jad Rizk, Adam Dahbache, Bryan Hajjar, Peter Fahed, Hassan Alloush, Samer Shmaysem, Ayman Sultan, Georges Yazbek, Omar Marhaba. Subs: Karim Mekery, Mostafa Kassem, Imad Arnaout, Zakaria Ammar

SAUDI SCHOOLS SELECT U16
Yousef Safadi (c), Hakeem Al Moukhtar, Abdullah Kabbani, Mohamed El Obeid, Omar Yamak, Saleh Madhoun, Josh Papanicolaou, Kareem Selim, Rami Howell, Karim Baassiri, Abdulrahman Sharkawi, Pedro Scalamandre,  Omar El Fouly, Arran McGraith , Omar Fahmy, Michael van Greunen  Muhammed Sillah