The Abu Dhabi Harlequins snatched victory from the Dubai Hurricanes with the final play of the game, winning 20-19 for four vital Gulf Top Six points.
Graham Murphy touched down after a period of pressure to bring Quins to within a point before Matt Hutchings held his nerve to kick the match-winning conversion.
The late reprieve maintains Quins’ perfect record in the Top Six this season as they plot to go one better than last year’s campaign, where they lost out to the Jebel Ali Dragons.
Ben Boulger and Billy Graham were the other try scorers for Abu Dhabi while Luke Stephenson kicked a penalty.
The Hurricanes were left to lick their wounds after their second defeat out of three, a record that betrays some of the quality rugby they have played so far in this campaign.
Chris Coupeland ran over the Canes only try while Andy Powell did the rest with the boot thanks to a conversion and four penalties.
Quins fell foul of the officials, seeing three players sin-binned and one sent off, and player/coach Jeremy Manning admitted his side were second best.
“We didn’t deserve to win but we stuck it out,” he said. “It’s a great start, we didn’t play too well in the UAE Premiership so the boys are pretty keen to drive on in this competition.”
Elsewhere, the Jebel Ali Dragons put the Abu Dhabi Saracens to the sword in a 50-10 win while Doha beat Bahrain 24-16.
RESULTS
16:00 Bahrain 16-24 Doha
19:00 JA Dragons 50-10 AD Saracens
19:00 Hurricanes 19-20 A D Quins
