Ross Mills returned to haunt Jebel Ali Dragons as the champions suffered their first defeat of the season in a 26-24 loss to Dubai Hurricanes. Canes tore up the Sport360° UAE Premiership script with their first win against Dragons in four years.
Mills – who led the Dragons to success in the Dubai Sevens, UAE Premiership and ARFU West Asia Cup last season – watched as his new side established a 17-0 lead.
That owed as much to Dragons’ lack of fire, although the champions did show their pedigree to roar back in the second half. They fought back to gain a one-point lead at 24-23 and even after Andy Powell slotted a late penalty, they could have won it.
Graeme Braybrooke had a chance to win it at the death but his 45-metre penalty attempt dropped agonisingly short of the uprights.
Canes stormed into an early lead inside 15 minutes through Chris Gregory and Greg Thompson tries, both converted by Powell who also added a penalty.
“It was a really ding-dong, blood and guts game. It’s a tough loss to take but despite getting back to a point ahead we didn’t play with any consistency,” Dragons player/coach Murray Strang said.
Opposite number Mills believed the result will galvanise his charges.
“I’m delighted for the team who’ll maybe start to believe in themselves now,” he said. “They came back as champions do, but we held our nerve. I’m very happy but now we’ll get ready for (Dubai) Exiles.”
The race for the Premiership final was blown wide open after Dragons’ defeat and the fact Abu Dhabi Harlequins gained back-to-back wins with a 32-8 triumph at Exiles, who have now lost two in a row.
Matt Hawley scored another try for Quins, his fourth of the season, while Chris Marshall, Iziq Foa’i and Clendon Pene also crossed in the rout. Jeremy Manning converted three tries and kicked four penalties.
Exiles’ points came courtesy of a Michael Stubbs try and Ed Armitage penalty.
“We’re doing exactly what we need to do,” said Manning “We haven’t talked about the final and Canes winning makes that harder, but stranger things have happened.”
The New Zealander believes his side could have scored even more, a statement echoed by opposite coach Jan Venter.
“We got a good hiding tonight and in truth we were lucky not to lose by more,” said the gracious South African. “There’s no excuses, we just didn’t click or perform.”
