BEIRUT: A chilly night at Jamhour was warmed up by a 20-14 victory for Jamhour over the Gray Wolves in a match watched by some 150 supporters late Monday in the Lebanese Rugby Union League.

Jamhour go second in the table on points difference behind the Beirut Phoenicians while Gray Wolves slump to the bottom of the table with two defeats in two games.

The first half was dominated by the Jamhour pack, which provided good ball movement, only to be closed down by some dogged Wolves defending.

The Gray Wolves struggled to hold their line but were out-muscled in the 16th minute when Jamhour’s veteran captain, Serge Sabbagha, drove over the line for a try under the posts which was converted by Georges Cassab.

Both sides tried to lift their games during the next 15 minutes with Jamhour in the ascendance after a breakaway try from Wael Harb.

He subsequently converted, bringing the scores back level. Jamhour came back very strongly with their forwards driving hard and showing some impressive continuity of play controlled by their scrum half Georges Cassab. This hard work paid off when a penalty was awarded to Jamhour on the Gray Wolves’ 22 meter line and converted by Philippe Salam.

Just before halftime, another forward Ziad Murr broke through the Gray Wolves defense to score a try which was converted by Philippe Salaeh. The first half whistle went off shortly after a penalty was successfully kicked by Cassab, making the halftime score 17-7 to Jamhour.

The second half saw the Jamhour pack drive forward time and time again with some powerful runs from Jean Rmeili playing now at No. 8. However, this was countered by some dogged and aggressive defense from the Gray Wolves, led by their Captain Maher Hard, who was pivotal in driving back the Jamhour side on many occasions.

A yellow card sent Nicolas Abou Haidan of the Gray Wolves to the sin bin for hands in the ruck, a penalty which seemed to rally the 14 men of the Gray Wolves. They started to find some momentum and this led to a try from Joe Hitchom which was superbly converted by Harb from the touch line.

The Gray Wolves started to run everything at the Jamhour side and had a great overlap which if the ball had gone to hand would have been a certain try.

However, with minutes to go Cassab converted a penalty to stretch the Jamhour lead.