Muscat, July 18
Oman made its first-ever appearance at the Rugby World Cup, playing its opening match against Lebanon, within top five teams in the world and having several players who play rugby in Australia.
The Oman national team players put on a great performance and scored one of the most remarkable tries of the day, but the match ended with a score of 23-1 in Lebanon's favour.
In the second international match, Oman faced the strong French rugby team. The match was tough and played in high spirits but France's vast experience allowed them to slowly edge ahead of Oman, with the final score being 16-0.
In the third match, Oman played against Scotland, one of the traditional powerhouses in rugby. In the first quarter of the match, Oman was able to keep up with Scotland's attack and traded blows, but in the end, Scotland's superior speed, skill and experience proved to be the deciding factor and Scotland began to pull away with the score. Scotland was very complimentary of the way Oman fought and the final score did not reflect the course of the match, with Scotland winning 13-1.
Oman national team coach, Brian Hopkins, said, "We started our World Cup campaign against Lebanon. Lebanon is among the top five teams in the world, with a number of their players that playing in the Australian league. Our players entered the field without any prior World Cup experience, having only played one international match against the Philippines. It was a great experience, considering some of the results that other teams have achieved who have been playing at this level for years, we didn't embarrass ourselves."
Bryne continued, "It was exciting, as it took the players a few minutes to adjust to the pace, but once they got a taste of the level of play that Lebanon brought, they were able to compete. And that showed that we need time to build our combinations and then we came back and scored against them and Lebanon was shocked at the quality we brought against them."
"The difference was amazing, the players learned from the first game and became much stronger defensively. Our attack was much stronger in the second game just because we understood the difference between elite-level competition. Now we will learn from these experiences build on them and start to learn where we can take more opportunities. Overall, it was a great two days of experience."
Coach Hopkins explains, "From now Oman team is stronger, they are still smiling, their spirits are high and they are proud to represent the Sultanate of Oman on the international stage. And I hope everyone back home gets behind them because it's not just about now, it's about building the foundation for the next ten to twenty years and developing rugby internationally and for elite performance and the players are doing that brilliantly."
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