LEIGH – Michael Cheika and Mitchell Moses have masterminded Lebanon to the brink of the Rugby League World Cup quarter-finals with a stunning 32-14 win over Ireland at Leeds Sports Village.
Moses, fresh off a Grand Final appearance with Parramatta, was exceptional in attack, but plenty of the credit has to go to coach Cheika, who has his side playing a style quite unlike any other team at the tournament.
Ireland, who impressed last week in disposing of Jamaica, had no answer to the wave of set plays, ball steals and deception from the Cedars. They should have been warned: Lebanon tried much of the same last week to shock the Kiwis before fading late. There was no let up today.
There were repeated ball steals, several short restarts and more than a few pet plays, including one that used Moses, debutant five eighth Khaled Rajab and fullback Jacob Kiraz to superb effect for one of the best constructed tries of the tournament.
They should have enough to qualify by beating Jamaica next week, but Cheika refused to get carried away and look beyond the Reggae Warriors.
“I’m a bit of a dampener,” he said post-match. “Unfortunately, I’ve been to too many of these things and it’s not done until it’s done.
“You think it’s done and someone else will come and take it off you. I saw it when Fiji played against Uruguay in the Rugby World Cup, they thought they had it and Uruguay came and pinched it off them.”
(Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images for RLWC)
In what was at times a fiery clash – Ireland had two binned, Lebanon one – the only downside for Cheika was late injuries to Kiraz and Kayne Kalache, who was taken to hospital.
“I was highly disappointed about that whole thing,” said Cheika. “We got a player (Tigers half Adam Doueihi) sent off last week for supposedly saying something to the referee. Our guy (Kalache) takes a shot square to the head and nothing happens and he goes to hospital, so go figure.”
Referee Gerard Sutton was at the heart of everything: he blew 17 penalties – 11 against Ireland – as well as nine set restarts. Though the Cedars might have got the rub of the green from the ref, the Wolfhounds didn’t help themselves with 17 errors plus five ball steals conceded.
Lebanon had chances to take an early two before they did, and within moments of going ahead, added more when Reece Robinson crossed from excellent Moses build-up.
Kiraz then scored a trick play and Morkos took advantage of a failed short drop out attempt before Louis Senior got Ireland on the board from a scrum base move.
The first half came to a close with both sides brawling, resulting in Robbie Mulhern and Jalal Bazzaz taking ten minutes more on their half time break.
After the interval, Senior scored again, but any hopes of a comeback were squashed as Elie El-Zakhem, Abbas Miski and another Moses penalty goal took the score beyond reach.
Liam Byrne sat down for a late shot on Moses, and while Ed Chamberlain managed to add a consolation despite the man deficit, it was a deserved Cedars win.
Samoa have responded from last week’s humbling Rugby League World Cup loss at the hands of England with a 72-4 win over Greece – but Matt Parish’s side may be forced to do without Manly forward Josh Aloiai as the tournament progresses.
Aloiai instantly pointed to a heavily-bandaged right knee as he got up from an awkward fall and the prop was in considerable discomfort as he trudged off the field at Doncaster’s Eco Power Stadium on Sunday (Monday AEDT).
Parish later confirmed that Aloiai had dislocated his kneecap, putting his participation in next week’s crunch qualification clash with France in doubt.
His absence mattered little as Samoa’s much-hyped squad bounced back from their big defeat in the tournament opener against England by putting the Greeks to the sword with 13 tries.
Samoa scored off their very first set through Brian To’o and it was to be a theme throughout the afternoon as they tried to put last week’s painful defeat behind them.
Halfback Chanel Harris-Tavita, hooker Danny Levi and centre Tim Lafai grabbed try-scoring doubles.
Props Junior Paulo and Josh Papali’i breezed over as the Samoans rolled their way through a Greek middle short on quality and top-level experience.
Greece winger Siteni Taukamo saved them from more misery, pulling off three try-saving tackles in the first half to stop Jaydn Su’A, Stephen Crichton and Mathew Feagai from scoring near-certain tries.
Greece got the loudest cheer of the night from the 4415-strong crowd when South Sydney halfback Lachlan Ilias scored what will undoubtedly be a contender for try of the tournament.
Ilias chipped over the top for Jake Kambos who turned the ball back inside for him to cross over the whitewash.
Su’a was sin-binned in the final 10 minutes for a shoulder charge on Greece winger Johnny Mitsias.
With AAP
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