The 2007 World Cup has started

The first match of the 2007 Rugby World Cup was played last Friday. It was played in Doha in oil-rich Qatar on the Thumb of Arabia. Arabian Gulf played host to Kazakhstan and won 14-13.

It was a dramatic victory. The Kazakhstan led 13-9, but with the very last movement of the match the Gulf's No.8 David Clark scored the try which won the physical match.

The visitors scored two tries to one. Their try-scoring was countered by the boot of Chris Mathew.

First Mathew kicked a penalty and then prop Evgeny Antonov scored a try. Mathew kicked another penalty but then the Kazakhs got one through Dmitriy Pichugin and it was 8-6. That was the half-time score.

The visitors, who lost two simple opportunities to score more tries in the first half, got one in the second half when flank Grigoriy Ivanchenko went over. Mathew got three points back for his side.

Then as time died in the desert, Clark got the winning try.

The scorers:

For Arabian Gulf:
Try: David Clark
Pens: David Mathew 3

For Kazakhstan:
Tries: Evgeny Antonov, Grigoriy Ivanchenko
Pen: Dmitriy Pichugin

The teams:

Arabian Gulf: Chris Mathews (Bahrain), Nicoli de Marco, Paul Austin, Iutoi Tauafiafi, Amir Mohamed (all Dubai Dragons), Stephen Cooper (Dubai Exiles), Gareth Allum (Muscat), Sharbal Khordahai, Ian Masters (both Dubai Exiles), Matt Kearns (Dubai Dragons), Jason Clark (Abu Dhabi), John Stapley (Dubai Exiles), Paul Manders (Dubai Hurricanes), Tim Nunan (Doha), David Clark (Dubai Dragons).
Replacements: Mohammed Obaid (Jordan), Aubrey Roberts (Abu Dhabi), Turlough O'Brien (Abu Dhabi), Chris Pardon (Bahrain), Adrian Kerr (Dubai Dragons), Sebastian Mouchet (Dubai Dragons), Wayne Marsters (Abu Dhabi).

Kazakhstan squad: Andrey Abirkhayev, Azat Abishev. Ruslan Adylov, Evgeny Antonov, Ivan Galushkin, Grigoriy Ivanchenko, Petr Kolesnikov, Oleg Manakov, Timur Mashurov, Arman Mussulmankulov, Ivan Ossikovskiy, Vyacheslav Philippov, Dmitriy Pichugin, Alexander Polkovnikov, Valeriy Popov Anton Rudoy, Evgeny Sazonov, Yevgeniy Shekurov, Vladislav Taluenko , Dmitriy Tkachenko, Serik Zhanseitov, Vladimir Chernyh.