Having seen a three-year unbeaten home record ended seven days earlier, Abu Dhabi Harlequins set about starting a new streak with a valuable win over Bahrain at Zayed Sports City on Friday.
Phil Brady, Luke Stevenson and Andrew Semple scored the tries as the defending West Asia Premiership champions climbed back above Jebel Ali Dragons at the top of the table.
With Dragons being without a match this weekend, Harlequins’ win was enough to edge them back into a single-point lead at the top, ahead of their conquerors from last week.
Although the final winning margin suggested a comfortable win for the home side, the run of play in the first half in particular was quite the opposite.
Brady crashed over with the first attack of the game, but they were forced to withstand 35 minutes of pressure from then until the interval.
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They were not helped by their own indiscipline, as they lost two players to yellow cards. The fact they made it to the break with a 7-0 advantage in tact was due to their own doughty defence, as well as profligacy by the Bahrain attack.
Ironically, the travelling side managed their only score, a try through Rhys Fitzgerald, when they themselves were down to 14-men due to a yellow card.
Once they were back to the full quota, however, Harlequins stretched away, adding further tries via sparkling breaks by Stevenson and Semple.
“We all took it pretty badly last week, as it has been three years since we last lost at home, and it came as a bit of a shock because we didn’t really turn up,” Stevenson said.
“We knew that if we played our game we probably should have won last week. We didn’t, and they deserved it, so it was something for us to set a marker at.
“We started well today, then the yellow cards came at the worst possible time for us. We had 13 men, and we kept them scoreless for 15 minutes, which was down to good work rate.
“That is one thing we wanted to improve from last week, to make sure the work rate was higher, and keep the ball. It was pleasing to get through that first half.”
Another defeat on the road leaves Bahrain with ground to make up if they are to challenge for honours at the business end of the season.
Louie Tonkin, the Bahrain coach, said “mental issues” are holding his side back from reaching their full potential.
“I asked the boys [post match], ‘What is it?’ and I think it is down to belief, if we are honest,” Tonkin said.
“We probably had 80 per cent territory and possession in that first half, and created five try scoring opportunities, but didn’t score any of them.
“When you exert that much pressure on someone, and keep letting them off the hook, all you are doing is feeding their belief, while you are losing belief.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
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If you go
Flight connections to Ulaanbaatar are available through a variety of hubs, including Seoul and Beijing, with airlines including Mongolian Airlines and Korean Air. While some nationalities, such as Americans, don’t need a tourist visa for Mongolia, others, including UAE citizens, can obtain a visa on arrival, while others including UK citizens, need to obtain a visa in advance. Contact the Mongolian Embassy in the UAE for more information.
Nomadic Road offers expedition-style trips to Mongolia in January and August, and other destinations during most other months. Its nine-day August 2020 Mongolia trip will cost from $5,250 per person based on two sharing, including airport transfers, two nights’ hotel accommodation in Ulaanbaatar, vehicle rental, fuel, third party vehicle liability insurance, the services of a guide and support team, accommodation, food and entrance fees; nomadicroad.com
A fully guided three-day, two-night itinerary at Three Camel Lodge costs from $2,420 per person based on two sharing, including airport transfers, accommodation, meals and excursions including the Yol Valley and Flaming Cliffs. A return internal flight from Ulaanbaatar to Dalanzadgad costs $300 per person and the flight takes 90 minutes each way; threecamellodge.com
What is an ETF?
An exchange traded fund is a type of investment fund that can be traded quickly and easily, just like stocks and shares. They come with no upfront costs aside from your brokerage's dealing charges and annual fees, which are far lower than on traditional mutual investment funds. Charges are as low as 0.03 per cent on one of the very cheapest (and most popular), Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, with the maximum around 0.75 per cent.
There is no fund manager deciding which stocks and other assets to invest in, instead they passively track their chosen index, country, region or commodity, regardless of whether it goes up or down.
The first ETF was launched as recently as 1993, but the sector boasted $5.78 billion in assets under management at the end of September as inflows hit record highs, according to the latest figures from ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five largest providers BlackRock’s iShares, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisers, Deutsche Bank X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
While the best-known track major indices such as MSCI World, the S&P 500 and FTSE 100, you can also invest in specific countries or regions, large, medium or small companies, government bonds, gold, crude oil, cocoa, water, carbon, cattle, corn futures, currency shifts or even a stock market crash.
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COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
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