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11/29/05 |
     
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Year 1995 The Beirut Phoenicians Rugby Club (BPRFC) was formed in October 1995 in response to a request from the British Embassy for a rugby team to play HMS Cardiff, a Royal Navy warship that docked in Beirut for a few days in November 1995. With only two hours practice the Beirut Phoenicians came close to beating a team that went on to win the Royal Navy Cup.
Year 1996 In February 1996, under the sponsorship of D.H.L. (Lebanon) the BPRFC toured Cyprus (al-though 25% of the team were not allowed to leave the country at the airport) and played two matches against British Army teams from the Episkopi and Akrotiri bases. At the beginning of June 1996, BPRFC played the Fijian UNIFIL Battalion in Tyre, the match was called the Qana Memorial Cup, and in memory of the tragic events at the Fijian Battalion HQ on April 18th, 1996 .The Qana memorial Cup is now an annual event. In July 1996 BPRFC officially became a member of the Arabian Gulf Rugby Union. After a short summer break, the BPRFC had a busy season lined up. On September 14th the Club played the Fijian. On October 4th the Club hosted and played the London Lebanese XV, beating them 12 nil. On November 20th, the BPRFC flew to Dubai to take part in the prestigious Dubai Seven Tournaments, an international blue ribbon rugby event. That was the first time that a side from Lebanon took part in this competition, which was hosting the Asian Zone qualifying tournament for the International World Cup Sevens. The Beirut Phoenicians reached the semi – final of the Benson & Hedges Silver Khanjar Trophy, beating Doha, Kuwait, Al-Khobar and loosing to Dubai Barrelhouse in the semi – final; Barrelhouse went on to win the tournament, easily defeating Cairo in the final. The whole tournament was a great success, with representatives from all over the world, many of who was surprised and impressed that Lebanon was able to field such a competent side.
Year 1997 During the season, the BPRFC regularly played both the Irish and Fijian battalions serving with UNIFIL in South Lebanon. In February 1997,the Beirut Phoenicians played a rugby team from Jeanne DÁrc, a French Navy warship docking in Beirut for a few days, beating them 12- 5. In March 1997 the BPRFC flew to Cairo with its supporters to play the Cairo XV, defeating them 40- nil. In May, the Qana memorial Cup annual match was scheduled, and the Fijian team won the match. In June, the BPRFC hosted and played the Amman XV, winning the match 12-0. In July, BPRFC hosted another British Ship- HMS York and beat them 27-7. In October 97, Mr. Eddie Moutran Chairman of Memac, Lebanon, was elected, as the BPRC chairman, Mr. Moutran remained our main sponsor and chairman until the year 2000. Under his sponsorship we participated in the Bahrain 15 a side tournament, and we were knocked out in the quarterfinals. The club was unable to send a team to Dubai 7’s that year.
Year 1998 The winter season was exceptionally hard this year leaving little time for training let alone fixtures. After a summer break, the BPRFC resumed training. From small beginnings, the Beirut Phoenicians Rugby Club has become a formidable sporting institution. The Club now boasted a membership of over 50 players, the vast majority being Lebanese citizens. It was a slow year where the club only played two matches, the reason being the lack of a playing pitch as well as the harsh weather, however the year ended with an exciting finale. The BPRFC played and beat the French Naval Vessel Porte Avian, in March and then played and beat the Irish Batt in October. In December the club went to Dubai with its strongest team since it started, reach the final of the Khanjar Silver Trophy and lost in the final 30seconds. (After watching the final on videotapes it showed that the referee played a full two minutes over the final time)
Year 1999 This year although still lacking a club pitch was considerately better than last year, having played and won all five of our fixtures. We beat the Irish Batt in February, the French Naval Vessel Porte Avian (again) in February, and the Amman XV in April, the Irish Batt in October, and finally HMS Edinbrough in November. The side that went to Dubai lost against Bahrain in the semi-finals of the main trophy. (Too much drinking the night before, so we would like to think.)
Year 2000 This was the worst year for the club in terms of match fixtures, again we were bested towards the end of the year, the season finished off with a big kick. (You know how it goes, “ …a little drink a Big Kick”). Only two players remained from the old squad and four other players excluding these two had no more that 5 years playing experience, the other twenty were beginners. We only played one match at home and went away on two tournaments. In March we played and beat the French Naval Vessel Jean D’Arc. In June, as luck would bestow on us a cancellation by one of the teams that was to take part in the ‘Flood Lite Ten a Side International Tournament’ in Cyprus, we were invited to participate at Akitori Army Base. This turned out to be one of the main highlights for the club. Although we were knockout of the Plate semi final against the Army 1st XV, 5-0 they went on to beat the Air force 1st XV in the Plate final, 27-12. Our Captain, who played magnificently, showing strength and leadership, kept the team at close ranks both on and off the pitch, was awarded, Man of the Match Trophy. (Can you guess who’s editing this part?) This was a great honor for the club, in that the team showed discipline and determination throughout the tournament, especially in our matches. It gave the club a great boost for the coming year. Dubai was a different story altogether, after training hard all summer long practicing on sandy beaches to build up stamina and agility, the club lost in the semi final of the main trophy against a weaker Jordanian team who were more determined to win. We only played the Fiji Battalion twice this year, that’s right, you guessed it, the usual results.
Year 2001 It had been an active year for the club, although the results were mixed. Having lost their last four fixtures against us, the Irish Battalion put on a great show of force and beat us in January, 27-12. In February we beat the Amman XV 41-0 and proved to ourselves more than anyone, who ruled club rugby in the Middle East. (Non Professional) In March having being beaten in January, by the same Irish team, the BPRFC put up a great fight only having to lose in the last 5 minutes 10-5. In March the club played HMS Herald and won 45-3. In May the club again lost against the formidable and invincible force of the Fiji Batt 67-10. It was a good match as it was the first time this new squad had ever played against the Fiji’s. Although the match was dominated by the Fiji’s the club held its ground timidly. Between June and December, the club played 4 times against the Fiji’s. Although all these matches were lost each time we played, the final score after each match was reduced to our favor. (The Irish had been given orders to pull out its forces in the Lebanon) In June the club had to withdraw from participating in the King Abdullah II Trophy, as well as the Dubai International Seven’s in December due to lack of sponsorship. In October it was hoped that our club would be able to host a game against a combined UN team, lead by Michael Lynagh (Ex New Zealand International.) Regretfully due to the tragic events on 11th September in the USA we had to postpone and finally cancelled the venue. Had this event taken place it would have been put Beirut on the Map as a rugby destination, highlighting our clubs short history, (even more important than our Captain winning the Man of the Match Trophy in Cyprus last year, but it didn’t happen)
Year 2002 This was the year Rugby League was introduced in the Lebanon. With strong financial backing from the Australian Rugby league Board and expatriate Australian Lebanese rugby league players that played internationally, league flourished quickly. (There are six rugby league teams that compete weekly against each other.) It dampened the season for us. Training started in earnest and although we lost some of our players to rugby league, we started our season in February with our first match against the Fijians, whom we carried on playing throughout the season. Having come close to beating the Fiji (2nd & 3rd teams) on many occasions we were never able to finish ahead at the final whilst. Regrettably this remained the situation till the end of their mandate in December. Although we lost all our 8 matches to the Fijians, we improved as a team, especially as we again had a complete change of player, the majority of which only started playing rugby this year. We had originally arranged to participate in 5 overseas tournaments this year; Cyprus International 10’s, Bahrain Arabian Gulf 10s, King Abdullah Cup in Jordan, Cairo International 15’s and the Dubai International 7’s, we were only able to attend the tournaments held in Cyprus and Dubai, reaching the quarter and semifinals respectively. (These were funded by the players themselves due to lack of sponsorship.) Unfortunately no naval ships or visiting teams were able to stopover in the Lebanon.
Year 2003With the departure of the Fijian’s from the Lebanon in December 2002, meant we had no more local teams with whom to play. This would leave the club with the only option to play against visiting teams, travel aboard or establish a new team with whom we could play against, which was never an easy task, for the same old reason, ‘Sponsorship’. However having started sporadic training for students in Notre Dame Jamhour last year, the tempo pick up and soon there was a squad of 40. With this many young beginners we were able to organize a practice match later on in the year. It was our intention to play at least one game per month, our expected schedule was to be:
However, due to the Gulf war and the usual poor financing, we only managed to play a friendly against Jordan, a match against a combined local rugby league side and Dubai International 7’s. Our Dubai trip was fruitful because we managed to arrange fixtures for the coming year and laid down an agenda to establishing a new Rugby Union league, other than the Arabian League, that would coordinate with the representative of the IRB, based in Dubai. The new Rugby Union league would be comprised of teams from the Lebanon, Jordon, Cairo and Alexandria, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.
Year 2004 Unable to play our newly established Jamhour Black Lions last year 2003, we started off the season with a friendly against the Black Lions in March. Also a new development for Rugby Union in the region was the establishment of a expatriate team in Syria. (More below) Other scheduled matches and tournaments for this year were:
Jordan RUFC “King Abdullah Tournament” was originally scheduled for 30th January. This is usually a three day event part social and part matches that was postponed till October, however due to the lack of participant teams (due to late pullout fm Cairo & Saudi) was eventually canceled all together. Again a friendly against Jordon RUFC was scheduled for late May but was cancelled due to the number of available players from Jordon RUFC. Cairo International Ten-a-Side, 9th – 11th April, this was a colorful event with 8 participating teams. Our old foes the Fiji UN Battalion was of course in full force, invited to make up numbers. We played well and with a vengeance against them but we were knocked out by the Fiji team in the semi final. They of course went on to win the tournament comfortably, besting the host team, Cairo XV. The Highlight of the year was the organization and success of the first ever Rugby Union Tournament in Lebanon, “Beirut International Ten-a-Side” that took place on 11th – 12th June. Being the first such venue allow me to elaborate. There were six teams that participated, Cyprus, Jordon, Cairo, two teams from Lebanon and a mixed Barbarian team comprised of all reserve players of all teams. The Phoenicians played well and hard. Our only competitor was the semi professional team from Cyprus, where we narrowly and I mean very narrowly lost on both games played against Cyprus XV. On the First day of play Cyprus won 12-10 scoring a try in the last few seconds before the final whistle. And the final of the main event Cyprus won 13-12 with a penalty conversion (which we all dispute as a wrong decision by the assistant referee, this was confirmed after viewing a replay on video by the tournament photographer.) In any event the success of the tournament over rode our disappointments. We had hoped to travel to Nicosia to play a revenge match with this year tournament winners but……. You guessed it; with no funding we couldn’t put together enough players to sport a side. As mentioned earlier a new team was founded in the region, the Zenobian XV of Syria. After many scheduled and rescheduling of these matches for either team to play at home and with many cancellations from both side we finally managed to set a fixture which was played in October in Syria. They were a new side that was still developing and showed Great Spirit…..we won comfortably. We sent a team to Dubai International Seven-a-Side, 3rd – 6th December. Not our strongest team by far but we follow the belief that we should participate in as many venues as possible whether we have any chance of winning or not. This is in lieu with good rugby spirit. They managed to get through to the quarter final of the Khanjar Cup and reportedly had a great social event, which is only fair. With a new local rugby union team established, (Jamhour Black Lions) we played them on a monthly basis throughout the year. The results are oblivious. We had hoped to entertain a number of military ships passing through our waters (but none appeared) but we did (and that’s a first) continued training twice a week all season, and playing a game or two with the local rugby league teams.
Year 2005 What can I say, this year has been slow on the up take (I do feel that I repeat myself by repeating the start of every season) but we looked forward to our 2nd International ten a side tournament. Other than that we continued to train twice a week and played on a monthly basis with the Jamhour Lions (Don’t ask, they seem to have more trouble getting a team organized than us.) Along very long (7 year) awaited acceptance from the Ministry of Youth and Sports recognizing Rugby Union as a sport in the Lebanon and approval of our club license brought broad smiles on everyone’s face. This we hope will be the beginning of a optimistic future. Already plans are in the planning of a larger Arabian League of rugby countries in the region, as I mentioned above, excluding the Gulf League.
However after the sad and cruel assignation of Prime Minister Rafic Harriri these teams withdrew due for security reasons. They just don’t know what they missed. The tournament draw put us against the two favorite teams, last years winner Cyprus and this years new participants the infamous Dubai Exiles. At the end of the first day of play we were positioned second form bottom on points. Although we had a relatively easy second day of scheduled games, if there was any chance for us to reach the final we would have to get more than 5 tries per game so that we could accumulate enough bonus points. GUESS WHAT….We did. What a day it was. It was disappointing that we lost the final against Dubai Exiles in a hard fought final 7-5. Still it was a great tournament with encouraging prospects for next year. We are looking at 12 participating teams thus far. Other Fixtures for the rest of the year are as follows:
Signing off for this Year…. Editor in chief MJ
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This site was last updated 11/29/05
