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A total of seven schools, including three from Saudi Arabia, contested the first Middle Eastern youth rugby league festival, as the Qatar Invitational 9's tournament was held over two days in Al Khor.

The International School in the host city emerged victorious, beating off competition from local rivals Doha College, Gulf English School and Qatar International School along with visiting institutions, Jeddah Prep & Grammar, British International School Jeddah and their American counterparts from the Saudi city.

A wide variety of nations were represented among the players, including most of the Middle East and North African countries, but the experience of the Western pupils at Al Kour I.S and Doha College proved decisive, with the former running out 22-0 winners in the final between the two, to remain undefeated throughout.

The final was a match too far for a Doha side that nevertheless contained some of the competition’s best individuals in Scott De Beer, William Hewitt and Josh Cronin.

Coached by former Celtic Crusader Huw Kinsella, AKIS were led by stand-out performers James Hamer and Deaglan Madine but the team also contained a host of local Qatari boys, with Nasser Al-Hajri, Hazzaa Al-Naimi, Abdulla Al-Naimi and Jumah Al-Madhaki all contributing significantly.

Two Saudi schools finished behind the top two, with their best outfit, British International School, losing 20-12 to Doha in the semi final to finish third. “Conti”, as BISJ is known, was well served by Syrians Aboudeh Sweidan and Bisher Shehabi, while Saudi Youssef Al Fadl topped the scoring with four tries in as many games. 

Jeddah Prep & Grammar beat Gulf English School 18-14 in arguably the match of the tournament to finish fourth overall. GES is new to the sport and fifth in the standings was a credit to their inexperienced players, with Souleyman Mana, Everton Fortunato and Omar Halawa their most impressive debutants.

Rugby League European Federation Euro Med Director of Development, Danny Kazandjian was full of praise for the event. “It was terrific to see so many nationalities playing rugby league with such enthusiasm" he said.

"Everybody enjoyed themselves and left with an appetite for more. The school teachers did a magnificent job in organizing the facilities and with the logistics, not to mention the coaching of their teams, while all the boys played in the best possible spirit.”

“It was a worthy event and provides a platform for future cooperation between Middle East nations for the further development of the sport in the region” he added.