Jacques Benade was pleased with the “massive” character his side displayed as they beat Bahrain 24-15 to make it two wins from two in the West Asia Championship.
Eight penalties from South African fly-half Durandt Gerber saw Exiles come away unscathed from a buoyant Bahrain, who again showed following last week’s victory over Abu Dhabi Saracens that they have come on leaps and bounds since last season.
The home side took the lead through Alister Crombie’s superb early try but six straight successful kicks at goal saw the visitors surge into an 18-7 lead.
Ollie Luke’s unconverted try in the second half brought the scores to 18-15 before two more Gerber penatlies sealed back-to-back wins for Benade’s boys.
“It was a dog fight, an unbelievable game, either team could have won it,” said a clearly delighted Exiles director of rugby. “They’re a good side, they played really good rugby and I can see how they beat Saracens. It was a very physical and competitive game. They were up for it and had a massive crowd. The boys showed massive character to win.”
South African Benade said his side created few try-scoring opportunities but he was pleased with the precision from his men, especially from his compatriot Gerber, who was excellent from the tee.
“We created a few chances but didn’t score, they opened the scoring with a try and we didn’t even wake up for 30 minutes, but we were clinical. Durandt kicked and controlled the game well.”
Benade was also proud after his team had been forced to take an early flight west for the game, meaning they arrived in Bahrain at 07:00 for a game that kicked off 10 hours later.
Bahrain team manager Ian Davies said his side got a glimpse of that precision shown by Exiles.
“It was a really close game. We restricted Exiles to penalties and they didn’t really look like scoring a try but they did a lot with the ball and their kicking was good,” said Davies.
“We opened the scoring and dominated for 20-30 minutes but then we were penalised at almost every breakdown and we didn’t react to that. It takes a clever team to beat an opponent that outscores them two tries to nil.”