At Doha Rugby Football Centre, in front of a very enthusiastic and vocal crowd of over 1,000, on a hot, sunny and windy day, The Arabian Gulf defeated Thailand 40-20 in a very entertaining and competitive encounter in the opening match of the Asian qualifying round for the 2003 Rugby World Cup.Thailand made the first inroads when they mounted early pressure and were rewarded with a penalty after five minutes. Tanyavit Kuasint gave them a 3-0 lead. Arabian Gulf soon came back and with 10 minutes on the clock increased pressure with Todd Geddes to make it 3-3. With the first points on the board, Arabian Gulf moved forward only for Luke Phillips to be thwarted. More pressure by the Gulf side saw Gahrain's Rob Subbiani power through to score a try which was converted by Geddess making it 10-3. Thailand responded almost straightaway and won a penalty scored by Kuasint, but the kick went narrowly wide off the right post.

The Thai's got back into the game with a great move set up by Sunti Meethavorn, who delivered a pass to Sarayuth Thiengtrong. A conversion by Kuasint had the scores level at 10-10 with 26 minutes gone. Geddes scored a penalty four minutes later when Thailand was adjudged to be offside and put his side 13-10 up. The lead spurred on the Gulf team and a good combination of play by Maurice Thompson and Marcus Smith almost widened the lead but for good defence work by Thailand. 

Thailand almost equalised but Thiengtrong, after winning a penalty, saw Kuasint miss the chance. Thailand piled on the pressure soon after when Prin Kotchapakdi broke through the Gulf defence and Sunthi Meethavorn touched down, despite Kuasint missing the conversion. On the last play of the first-half, Geddes kicked a penalty after Thailand strayed offside to give the hosts a 16-15 lead.

Not long into the second-half, Smith and Subbiani combined well and the resulting tussle by Kuasint left him injured and he had to leave the field at the advice of "Magic Hands" Beth McNeil, which wasn't easy as a lot of interpreting from the Liaison Officer was required. The Gulf upped the pressure and skipper Dave Clark made a strong run and in the scrummage Bundit Kanbornvichaiwat got injured and also left the field. Stepping up the attack, the Gulf then went 21-15 ahead when vice-captain Gareth Allum scored a try and within minutes two more tries were added, firstly Geddes started the move and a Paul Austin pass to Dave Clark made it 26-15. Austin combined well with Jimmy Larsen to make it 33-15 after Geddes again converted with 20 minutes remaining. A late try by Austin and another conversion by Geddes made it 40-15 but all credit to Thailand. A good run by Meethavorn almost gave Kitti Wangkanai, who combined well with Phongchak Chakshwaksha, a try but Nantawat Wongwanichslip got a late consolation try with the game already wrapped up for the Gulf. Dave Clark commenting after the game said, "The gulf players would like to make Doha their home venue for any future World cup and other international games". This is a fine testament to the organisation of the steering committee of Dave Owen, Geoff Cullen and Keith Townson and of course the wonderful support and hospitality that Doha is famous for.

The match was sponsored by QatarGas, match balls by Exxon Mobil and the programme by HSBC. The Arabian Gulf are sponsored by Murray & Roberts, Kooga made for Rugby and Hepworth.

The next matches in the group are on April 13th when  Thailand take on Hong Kong and on April 20th when Arabian Gulf travel to Hong Kong.

In the curtain raiser Under 16's match a very strong and match hardened Dubai Exiles beat a tremendously spirited Doha who battled away in their normal dogged fashion 26-0.