England and Lebanon met in the final match of Pool A for week 2, and we’ve covering the game with the Who, What, Where, When and How of the big game which had a real bite about it.
The 2017 Rugby League World Cup is a big deal for us, being huge rugby league fans and love a minnow or two, and we’ll be covering all of the games throughout.
So visit our 2017 RUGBY LEAGUE WORLD CUP MATCH CENTRE
Now onto the England v Lebanon game.
ENGLAND v LEBANON MATCH REVIEW
RESULT – Who Won?
ENGLAND 29
Tries: K. Watkins (9), J. McGillvary (25), R. Hall (28), B. Currie (32), T. Burgess (56)
Goals: G. Widdop 4 Conv
Field Goal: G. Widdop (80)
LEBANON 10
Tries: N. Kassis (18), J. Wehbe (75)
Goals: M. Moses 1 Conv
THE DOWLING-TAMATI #RLWC2017 PLAYER OF THE TOURNAMENT
We’ve decided that a tournament as big as the 2017 Rugby League World Cup needs a Player of the tournament, and who better than International relations specialists Kevin Tamati and Greg Dowling to name our award.
We award points on a 5-4-3-2-1 scale every match, and the results for this game is below. For the running total from all of the games visit our 2017 RUGBY LEAGUE WORLD CUP MATCH CENTRE
5 Points – Thomas Burgess
4 Points – Kallum Watkins
3 Points – James Graham
2 Points – Jermaine McGillvary
1 Point – Alex Twal
MATCH PREVIEW
Who: ENGLAND v LEBANON
Where and When: Saturday 4th November at Sydney Football Stadium 8pm
When is it on TV? Channel 7Mate (Delayed) @ 8:30pm
What’s the Story?
England went down bravely against Australia last weekend, playing just over a half without star man Sam Burgess, and only a late runaway try for Australia made the margin of 14 points look more comfortable than it really was.
James Graham amongst others was superb, trying his all, and never more evident than his chase of Josh Dugan for Australia’s late try. A lesser man wouldn’t have bothered to start with, let alone chase the whole way. We were also impressed by Jermaine McGillvary who we don’t see so regularly in Australia. One player we do Gareth Widdop also played well, so on last week’s efforts and with master coach Wayne Bennett at the helm it should be all good for the English on Saturday.
Lebanon won what was probably the best contest over the weekend, getting past France in the end with a few late tries, and a field goal from Mitchell Moses. The former Tiger now Eel was superb for the Cedars last weekend, and has continued his NRL form into the Rugby League World Cup. Some great scenes after the game for Lebanon after the rare win, and they will approach the England game with confidence of an upset.
England need to win to get their chances of at least finishing second to Australia going, or Lebanon could throw a real spanner in the works for the rest of the Rugby League World Cup by winning a second straight game..
Who Will Win and Why?
Will Lebanon have enough for an upset? We say probably not, but it won’t be a blow out either.
As good as Mitchell Moses was, and the experience of Robbie Farah and Tim Mannah, Lebabnon are still a side made up mostly from local Sydney competition based players. They are up against an English team full of battle hardened Super League and NRL experience across the field. And in Gareth Widdop have their own in-form half to run the show.
The experience of a southern hemisphere evening in November will heavily favour a Lebanon side with so many Sydney based players, but the mainly northern hemisphere side in England should be professional enough to get through the heat.
England to win, but we are tipping Lebanon to take the lead early.
England by 18
Who to watch for?
We really liked the work of Jermaine McGillvary last weekend, and hope to see plenty more of it on the weekend from the winger. James Roby too, caught the eye, as did the fullback Jonny Lomax. Although it was hard to keep picturing a Jonny Lomax as a fullback and not the hulking prop of his namesake from a decade ago.
Once again Mitchell Moses is the man to watch for Lebanon, not only for his rich vein of form at the moment, but his importance on Lebanon’s chances of winning. Robbie Farah is also worth keeping an eye on, as he hogs the ball for Lebanon too.
TEAMS
Who’s in the Teams?
ENGLAND
1 Jonny Lomax, 2 Jermaine McGillvary, 3 Kallum Watkins, 4 John Bateman, 5 Ryan Hall, 6 Gareth Widdop, 7 Luke Gale, 8 Chris Hill, 9 Josh Hodgson, 10 James Graham, 11 Ben Currie, 12 Elliott Whitehead, 13 Sean O’Loughlin, 14 Alex Walmsley, 15 Chris Heighington, 16 Thomas Burgess, 17 James Roby, 18 George Williams, 19 Mike McMeeken, 20 Mark Percival, 21 Stefan Ratchford.
LEBANON
- Daniel Abou-Sleiman (Newtown Jets), 2. Travis Robinson (Redfern All Blacks), 3. Bilal Maarbani (Manly-Warringah), 4. Adam Doueihi (South Sydney), 5. Abbas Miski (North Sydney), 6. Mitchell Moses (VC – Parramatta), 7. Robbie Farah (C – South Sydney), 8. Tim Mannah (Parramatta), 9. Michael Lichaa (Bulldogs), 10. Alex Twal (Wests Tigers), 11. Chris Saab (Guildford), 12. Ahmad Ellaz (Auburn Warriors), 13. Nick Kassis (Wentworthville Magpies), 14. Mitchell Mamary (Auburn Warriors), 15. Ray Moujalli (Canterbury Bulldogs), 16. Jamie Clark (Auburn Warriors), 17. Jason Wehbe (unattached), 18. Elias Sukkar (Auburn Warriors), 19. Anthony Layoun (Parramatta), 20. Andrew Kazzi (Wests Tigers), 21. James Elias (Wests Newcastle)
