Action from the match between Doha 1st XV and Kazakhstan’s Olymp RFC in the West Asia Rugby Clubs Champions League.

By Mikhil Bhat/Doha

Doha 1st XV stormed to their second victory in as many games in the West Asia Rugby Clubs Champions League at home yesterday.
Doha overcame a sketchy start to brush aside Kazakhstan’s Olymp RFC 57-12 in a physically brutal match. With the Saracens vs Kandy game in Abu Dhabi being cancelled, DRFC are on top of the table with nine points.
Kandy and Olymp both have 3 points after they played out a 35-all draw on Saturday. Saracens are bottom of the table courtesy their opening match loss in Doha.
Playing a game on a weeknight after work for the first time certainly took its toll on the Doha boys who took 25-odd minutes to get into the groove. This meant there were lots of dropped balls on Doha’s part but luckily for them, the Kazakhs couldn’t take advantage.
The closest Doha came to scoring points in those early moments was through a penalty opportunity but Brook Treymayne only managed to get the ball bounced off the left goalpost.
In the 27th minute, Aaron McLelland broke away from inside Doha half and through Olymp traffic before offloading to James Knakker, who scored the first try of the game. Treymayne made no mistake this time and Doha were 7-0 up. In the next 12 minutes, Doha managed to slip past Olymp twice more to take the score to 12-0. A penalty try moments before the break, meant the hosts had a massive 24-0 lead. Second half began and Olymp powered into Doha half but McLelland once again received and sprinted for the other end for a 29-0 lead.
Ten minutes into the second half, Ivan Olkhorskiy got the Kazakhs their first try but they missed out on conversion. Gregg Evans and Wade Lotter added a try each to Doha’s score, and the two conversions took the score to 43-5. Meanwhile, a wild swing by Mikhail Nikolayev at McLelland earned the Olymp player a yellow card and the visiting team was down to 14 men for 10 minutes.
Soon Doha were past 50 and even though Olymp pulled seven points moments from time, it wasn’t enough.
“I think in the first 25 minutes, our heads were not in the game. It was first time for the boys to play at night after work. So it took them a long time to get into the game. Olymp were up for it and we had to subdue them first before we got on top of the game,” Doha coach Aaron Palmer said after the game.
Talking about Doha’s chances of winning the competition, Palmer said: “I wasn’t looking at this tournament as a must-win. I was looking to use it as an opportunity to push our players, form patterns and then get on with the normal competitions that we participate in. But we are in a good position to take this tournament and we will try and win it.”
Palmer also expressed happiness at the interest Qatar Olympic Committee and Qatar Rugby and American Football Committee are taking in these games.
“Look this is tremendous support from QOC, Qatar Rugby and American Football Committee. Some local boys have come to watch us. If we can be the driving force behind getting the sport going here, we have made a difference and that’s what it is all about.”
DRFC vice chairman Jason Morris said, “2015-16 will mark the first time that the Qatar Olympic Committee has taken an active role in Qatar Rugby, and they are already showing their commitment to rugby in Qatar by their support of this competition. We are looking forward to showing them the quality of rugby, community and sportsmanship that can be generated by this wonderful game at DRFC. The opportunity to immediately work towards full membership of World Rugby is there before us and with their support the sky is the limit.”
Present at the game were QRAFC board member Ali al-Malki and Faleh al-Qahtani.