Dubai Hurricanes were left to deal with the physical and emotional consequences of a heart-breaking last minute 37-34 loss to Abu Dhabi Harlequins.
Luke Stevenson kicked 22 points for Quins including a penalty in the last few seconds at Zayed Sports City to really put the boot into Canes who were also hit by serious injuries to winger Daryl Johnson and second rower Greg Thompson.
Canes head coach James Ham fears he has lost Johnson for the season with a suspected broken ankle.
@caneseffect hope the boys injured yesterday are OK. Please send our best from @Abudhabiquins
— Michael McFarlane (@mike11085) February 13, 2016
“It was a crazy game,” said Ham of the 70-point thriller that saw nine lead changes.
“We played some good rugby but we didn’t have that killer instinct they did. We’re still right up there but the difference between us and Quins, Doha and Exiles is we lack that cutting edge.”
A silver lining for Canes was picking up a try-scoring and losing bonus point as they crossed through Darragh Duggan, Mike Jasko and Andy Powell tries and were awarded another via a penalty try.
“It’s a massive performance to build on,” added Ham.
“We can’t really complain about coming away from Quins with two bonus points.”
Quins flanker Ben Bolger still doesn’t feel Quins have quite hit their stride, although that’s an ominous sign for the rest of the teams having won their opening four games.
“We struggled to get out of first gear really as the game was so bitty, but Luke kicked really well and the back three were fantastic,” said Bolger.
Elsewhere, Doha stayed top of the table with a 32-0 victory at home against Bahrain, with head coach Aaron Palmer glad to get back to winning ways.
“It was a tough game and harder than the scoreline shows,” said the Kiwi.
Bahrain skipper Adam Wallace also thought the score didn’t reflect the efforts of his side. “I know it’s easy to say when you’re the team that’s come away with a loss but the score really doesn’t reflect the game and you’ll hear the same from Doha,” said Wallace.
