Exiles squeeze past Abu Dhabi Saracens in UAE Division 1

Exiles‘ teenager, Max Hennessy, distributed the ball well all game

You have to give credit to the Abu Dhabi Saracens rugby team, it can’t be the most appealing of journeys on a Tuesday evening to the Sevens Stadium for an 8pm kick off at the Dubai Exiles. Travel they did, and an initial scan of the Saracens‘ warm up revealed some pretty big units for the young, and not so young, Exiles‘ ‘Super Twos’ to deal with.

Teenager, Alfie Wilson, had enjoyable game beating defenders

Sajeewa just about keeps his head

The opening exchanges were a bit jet lagged. The Tuesday evening kick off had clearly impacted the body clocks of many of the players, loose kicks, dropped passes, high tackles and missed overlaps were the staple of the opening exchanges.

Alfie Wilson on his way to the try line

Things didn’t really get interesting until the seventh minute. The Saracens‘ number 20 had recently won an online competition to have an expedition ship named after him, ‘Punchy McPunchface‘, and was keen to carry that tag into any form of contact. With Exiles‘ attacking the Saracens‘ try line, ‘Punchy‘ got a little over enthusiastic in the ruck, and with Mickey Goldmill watching proudly on was promptly sent to the naughty chair to cool off for 10 minutes.

From the penalty restart, the Exiles moved the ball from right to left, and despite a crunching tackle in the midfield, the extra man provided the overlap for Exiles‘ wing, Anojan Balasundaram, to score. Converted by DuRandt Gerber, 7 – 0.

Punchy McPunchface gets his first yellow

Tarek Mursal had a big game

It took about 10 minutes for the Saracens to reply, driving over near the posts in the 14th minute. The 10 minutes between the scores had been a relatively turgid affair with dropped passes, silly off-loads, and a penchant for the Exiles‘ try scorer to enthusiastically run 30 metres laterally and take his own back line out of the game.

The game settled into its own rhythm. Miracle pass attempt, dropped ball, scrum… ruck, punch, face wash, shove, penalty… On 20 minutes the Exiles did get a very good chance to cross the Saracens‘ line again. Fullback, Sajeewa Chathuranga, had rounded one would be tackler and was haring off down the wing when the Saracens‘ scrum half went for the decapitation option rather than the tackle option. Yellow card. Sajeewa’s head luckily still attached to his neck.

Marc Why‘s ‘Yellow Card Chicken’ was in for a busy night on the Exiles‘ live stream. The Exiles made a hash of the penalty and found themselves with a scrum against them back on the half way line in the middle of the rugby pitch. Nobody is quite sure how, or why, this happened – the referee had simply decided that this was the best option to restart the game.

The Saracens‘ stand in scrum-half failed to gather the ball as it squirted out of the side of a retreating Saracens‘ scrum. Alex Fowler was the first to react, a couple of rucks, a worrying ball juggle from Exiles‘ Max Hennessey, and Exiles were out wide on the left of the pitch. Joshua Fritz hit hard into the Saracens‘ defense and when the ball was moved wide to the right young Alfie Wilson found himself in space with two defenders to beat.

Alfie’s dad would have been proud of his son’s dancing feet that befuddled the Saracens’ fullback. His only lament would have been that those dancing feet were not busy doing the tango at his beloved Tottenham Hotspur. Converted by DuRandt. 14 – 7 Exiles.

The match resumed its rhythm and for the rest of the first half it certainly wasn’t a spectacular by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, so much so, even the referee got frustrated and blew up for half time on 35 minutes.

Alex Fowler gets ready to pounce

Big tackle…

The second half was undoubtedly a lot more entertaining. It was off to a great start for the Exiles too. After some direct running from the Exiles‘ forwards and a backline that was letting the ball go, the Exiles had worked themselves close to the Saracens‘ try line, far out on the right. With almost 3 minutes on the second half clock, the overlap was spotted and the ball crisply moved along the backline for Sajeewa Chathuranga to score. 19 – 7 Exiles.

At his point you’d be forgiven for thinking the Exiles were going to go into cruise mode and run away with the game, but it didn’t happen. ‘Punchy’ and his teammates galvanised themselves and made a fist of things. The Saracens were good value for the next two scores. The Exiles‘ ‘Super Twos’ were guilty of complacency and let the Saracens cross their try line twice. They weren’t beautifully crafted scores, they were direct and brutal. With 20 minutes left on the clock, maybe 15, nobody really knew what the ref’s watch was telling him, it as 19 – 21 to Saracens.

Kahurangi Emberson tore the Saracens defense apart

At this point the Exiles remembered what they’d come to The Sevens Stadium to do, and that was to play rugby. The Exiles found themselves pinned back on their own 5m line with a defensive line out. A brave throw to the back and big hitting Tarek Mursal set off on a charge. When Tarek was tackled the ball was quickly moved from the ruck, a couple of passes out to the wing, a pass inside, and Exiles‘ young fly half Max Hennessey was left with a foot race to the Saracens‘ try line. With various arms held aloft for the score the referee pulled play back for a forward pass. Max had been ‘chirping’ at the Saracens‘ fullback all the way to the try line and had to endure the same treatment as he walked back the the Exiles‘ 22.

Despite the clock quietly ticking down, and despite the 19 – 21 scoreline, the game didn’t feel like the Exiles were in trouble. They just needed to play their game and cross the Saracens‘ try line, it was only a matter of time – wasn’t it?

The Saracens‘ found themselves with 14 players on the pitch for the last 15 minutes. ‘Punchy‘ had done something to incur the wrath of the Assistant Referee and with a second yellow, Marc Why, who had earlier predicted this outcome for Mickey Goldmill’s prodigy, could finally get to use the ‘Red Card Chicken’ on the live stream.

From the penalty it looked like replacement wing, Kahurangi Emberson had score to take Exiles back into the lead. The youngster from New Zealand posesses wonderful feet, and after he’d danced between two Saracens‘ defenders he crossed the line to score. However, again this was pulled back for a forward pass. Still 19 – 21 to Saracens. A couple of minutes later, the same situation. A penalty on the Saracens‘ 5m line, the ball moved left and Kahurangi Emberson again danced over the line to score, arms in the air, celebrations, but this time the referee said that the ball had been knocked on in the process of grounding it. Still 19 – 21. This was just getting silly.

3 tries now disallowed for the Exiles – maybe it was just going to be one of those days. The young Kiwi did get his moment of magic. With the clock running down Saracens‘ had a penalty under their own posts which they gave an almighty hoof, but failed to reach touch. The ball did reach ‘Kahu‘ who set off on a run that will become a pub quiz question in years to come – how many Saracens‘ defenders did Kahurangi Emberson sidestep on his way to creating Ben Hatcher‘s match winning try against Abu Dhabi Saracens? Eight, maybe nine?

However many it was, the Exiles‘ Ben Hatcher had finally safely grounded the ball after driving over from one meter out, and with ‘Punchy’ off the field the Saracens were out of time and out of players to threaten the scoreboard. 24 – 21 to Exiles.

DUBAI EXILES RFC v ABU DHABI SARACENS

UAE Division 1 (8th February 2022)