Jebel Ali Dragons belatedly breathed a bit of fire into their season as they torched Dubai Hurricanes with a supreme seven-try showing.
After an opening day 51-10 thrashing at Bahrain and their fixture last week against Al Ain Amblers being reduced to a friendly, this was the first real glimpse of Dragons – and it was impressive.
Henry Paul could be pleased with his side’s emphatic win, with New Zealand fly-half James Semple, bullocking wing Shaun McCarthy and UAE full-back Imad Reyal all impressing and ex-Al Ain centre Sakiusa Naisau untouchable.
“We had to pick it up from Bahrain and forget all the mistakes we made there,” said the Fijian. “Today it was a good game against a team who came out hard against us. We stuck to our game plan and worked hard on defence, although we still need to improve.”
Naisau and McCarthy both helped themselves to two tries although Canes never let up and can take solace in the fact that they deservedly earned themselves a try-scoring bonus point right at the death.
“That’s a point on the league table which, once we turn it round, could prove crucial, and shows we still have some fire in us,” said head coach James Ham. “We can make excuses but it simply isn’t good enough. Something’s got to click, unfortunately it’s just not there yet.”
Dragons opened the scoring after just six minutes – Naisau ploughing through the Canes defence before offloading to No. 8 Lawrence Reynolds who barged over.
Canes fly-half Andy Powell’s brilliant miss pass sent Daryl Johnson over as Canes responded, but Dragons took a grip of the game with two tries before the interval through McCarthy and Naisau.
Back came Canes early in the second half through prop Mike Jasko but Dragons always had a response and Naisau and Chris Masson tries put the game out of reach.
Nick Beaumont crashed over to keep Canes in contention for a bonus point and the hosts didn’t help themselves with no fewer than four players sin-binned.
Then came the try of the match. Replacement scrum-half Justin James fielded a kick and made inroads into Canes territory. He spread the play wide to former Abu Dhabi Saracens hooker Gio Fourie who offloaded beautifully to the supporting McCarthy who finished in the corner.
Reyal then got on the board and Semple’s conversion took Dragons over the half century mark before Luke Kettlewell and Canes had the final say.
