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Lebanon coach Michael Cheika was left “disappointed” by the officiating after an Ireland forward was allowed to remain on the field after a high shot on his star prop, which took him out of the Rugby League World Cup clash.
Lebanese prop Kayne Kalache was taken to hospital after the match and is in doubt for their final pool game against Jamaica after he was hit high by Titans and Ireland forward Jaimin Jollife in the 27th minute of the Cedar’s 32-14 win.
Kalache took no further part in the clash, while Jollife was penalised and put on report.
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Post match, Cheika took issue with the fact a penalty was the extent of the in-game punishment.
He highlighted the fact that two players were sin binned in the match for an incident that was considerably less dangerous.
“I was a little bit disappointed about that whole thing,” he said.
“We had a player sent off for saying something to the referee. (Kalache) takes a shoulder fair and square to the head and nothing happens, and our player ends up going to hospital. Go figure.
“He’s OK – it was mostly precautionary, (but) he’ll have to go through really strict protocols to get him back up.”
The win has put Lebanon in the box seat to book their place in the quarter-finals.
It was a match played with a lot of niggle – both sides lost a player to the sin-bin after a scuffle broke out on half-time, while Ireland’s Liam Byrne also spent 10 minutes watching from the sidelines after he put a late shot on Mitchell Moses.
Lebanon and Ireland now have a win and a loss, but the Cedars will start their last pool game next weekend as a heavy favourite to beat tournament debutant Jamaica. Ireland meanwhile must topple unbeaten New Zealand to have a chance.
Moses kicked 10 points and teed up two of their five tries as he led the Cedars in the absence of Adam Doueihi.
He opened the scoring with an early penalty goal, before centre Reece Robinson crossed in the corner. Moses then sent fullback Jacob Kiraz over and the Cedars grabbed a third try in 10 minutes when winger Josh Mansour picked out centre Brandon Morkos.
Winger Louis Senior went over in the corner either side of halftime as the Wolfhounds reduced the deficit to 20-10 but Lebanon surged clear again as a wonderful one-handed reverse pass from Moses led to second row Elie El-Zakhem touching down.
Winger Abbas Miski effectively settled the contest with a try shortly before the hour mark, then Irish centre Ed Chamberlain grabbed a consolation score.
Cheika, pulling double duty as the coach of rugby union’s Argentina, wasn’t getting too excited until the Cedars qualify for the quarters, as they did in 2017.
“I’m a bit of a dampener unfortunately – it’s not done until it’s done,” Cheika said.
Elsewhere, Samoa rebounded from a thrashing from England by thumping Greece, the other newcomer, by 72-4 and 13 tries in Doncaster.
In the race to qualify, likely with England from Group A, Samoa leapfrogged France to second place. They meet in a quarterfinal decider on Monday (AEDT) in Warrington. Greece finishes against England on Sunday (AEDT).
Hooker Danny Levi, scrumhalf Chanel Harris-Tavita and centre Tim Lafai each crossed twice for Samoa, with centre Stephen Crichton also among the try-scorers and kicking 10 conversions.
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