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Abu Dhabi Saracens do double over Quins, Bahrain crush Jebel Ali Dragons

A stirring second half fight-back by Abu Dhabi Harlequins provided city rivals Saracens with arguably their stiffest test of the Gulf Top Six campaign.

Al Ghazal was engulfed by swirling winds as the UAE found itself in the midst of a mild sandstorm on Friday – but Sarries weathered the bizarre conditions and a brave effort from their fierce foes to win 34-26 and make it seven wins from seven.

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The hosts held leads of 17-0 and 31-7 at various stages of the game, but 11 minutes of superb rugby from the Zayed Sport City men showed exactly why they’ve already won the UAE Premiership and Dubai Sevens titles this campaign.

After an even opening, Sarries took a familiar stranglehold on the game with an 11-minute blitz of their own – Dillon Gage, Elliott Reeder and captain Jaen Botes all crossing for tries.

The visitors gave themselves a lifeline on the stroke of half-time when the combative William Umu bulldozed his way over to score, and even though prolific flanker Gage made it 24-7 just after the restart, Quins refused to wilt.

Quins were playing Sarries at their own forward dominated game, Tumanake Symour burrowed over for their fourth try four minutes later to make it a one score game.

Sarries were under the cosh but Reeder’s late penalty stretched the gap to eight and gave them some breathing room, and they held on to do the double over their capital city opponents – their first win over Quins in their four-year history.

Bahrain finally got the first win of this season’s Gulf Top Six with a crushing 35-3 defeat of the Jebel Ali Dragons.

They won at the seventh time of asking, but it was arguably worth the wait as they crushed a shell-shocked Dragons – the home side restricted to just three points for the third week in succession.

 Jebel Ali Dragons.
Jebel Ali Dragons.

The visitors ran in seven tries in total, but on a day of high winds in the UAE, not one was converted.

Dragons were without their talismanic player/coach Murray Strang, who could yet miss the rest of the season after suffering a shoulder injury last week against Abu Dhabi Saracens.

In Qatar, Doha ran in the biggest score of the season yet with a 69-7 hammering of Dubai Hurricanes.

After a morale-boosting win against Bahrain last week, their first in four games, Ross Mills promised his side would throw caution to the wind in Qatar.

There were almost as many tries for the hosts as there were players in their starting XV, Aaron Palmer’s side going over for 11 scores in total.


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