Lebanon and France have produced one of the wildest games in World Cup history with the Cedars scoring a game-winner in golden point in the most dramatic of fashion.<\/p>\n
France looked to have had the game won just minutes earlier but a matchwinning field goal was taken off the scoreboard when an escort was spotted by the video referee.<\/p>\n
Lebanon half and Bulldogs young gun Alex Conti missed a penalty goal attempt from 48 metres out at the end of the first golden point which was fielded by France fullback Arthur Mourgue.<\/p>\n
Mourgue could have ended the period and forced a second golden point by just conceding a tackle but he instead went for an audacious kick from deep in his own end, which was plucked out of the air by Lebanon back rower Abbas Miski, who then ran 15 metres to score and seal a 24-20 victory.<\/p>\n
Mourgue put his name in lights when he forced golden point with a two-point field goal from 40 out right on the full time buzzer to level the scores at 20.<\/p>\n
But he would go from hero to zero after his bizarre faux pas gifted Lebanon a famous World Cup win.<\/p>\n
French suffer heartbreaking referee call | 05:58<\/p>\n
\u201cI am gobsmacked. I cannot believe what we\u2019ve just seen this last 10 to 15 minutes of play,\u201d former Origin star Aaron Woods said on Channel 7.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we have witnessed these last 10 minutes, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve ever seen anything like this in rugby league.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miski, the try-scorer, could hardly believe how everything unfolded when speaking to foxsports.com.au after the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they got that field goal, I was in a bad place and so upset. I was like, possibly in one of my last World Cups for Lebanon, and I was just so upset,\u201d Miski said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know we\u2019ve tried so hard this whole World Cup and I know we deserve to win and then it\u2019s like I f****** woke up from a dream or something.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone came across shouting there\u2019s a blocker it\u2019s our ball and I thought he was going to make that goal kick but I thought I\u2019ll charge this down and maybe it\u2019ll bounce and someone will get it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just fell into my hands. I\u2019m so happy for the boys. I\u2019m getting a lot of praise right now but I\u2019m just so happy for the boys and coaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been through a lot of things the outside doesn\u2019t know. I\u2019m so happy for the boys and for Lebanon Rugby League.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t the ideal World Cup, but it is what it is. I\u2019m happy that we got that win and we can move forward and try and get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/5bb78a5581fcbcaa42ba08ddebed1710.jpeg\")
The Cedars celebrate the win. (Photo by Cameron Spencer\/Getty Images)Source: Getty ImagesAbbas Miski of Lebanon celebrates with teammates. (Photo by Cameron Spencer\/Getty Images)Source: Getty ImagesFrance thought they had won. (Photo by Cameron Spencer\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Lebanon captain Alex Twal, who was sin binned just before the end of regulation, revealed the rollercoaster of emotions he was dealing with.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually don\u2019t know what to feel. France came out here and wanted to win. Credit to our boys. We didn\u2019t play a good brand of footy but we got the win and it\u2019s a great end to our campaign,\u201d Twal said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so proud of the boys. I said it at the start of the tournament. We\u2019ve got plumbers. We\u2019ve got electricians. We\u2019ve got builders. These blokes came here just to have a crack and they\u2019re versing some of the best in the world. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou look at Abbas there. He\u2019s a bloke that has been chipping away in the Super League and he\u2019s played wing. He\u2019s never played back row in his whole life. For him to come up with a play like that, it\u2019s just true Lebanese spirit. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got goosebumps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ugly scenes overshadow Kiwis’ win | 01:35<\/p>\n
The golden point drama followed a dramatic conclusion to regular time which saw both teams have players sent to the bin in the final minutes as tempers flared. <\/p>\n
Twal and Julian Bousquet were binned, with the Frenchman given his marching orders for a facial to the Lebanon skipper on the ground.<\/p>\n
Twal took exception to it and went right back at Bousquet, which triggered an all-in melee and saw the referee send both players to the bin. <\/p>\n
The Cedars were first onto the board early in the opening half with Bulldogs playmaker Alex Conti starring as he played it short to Miski, who then found the young half backing up in support. <\/p>\n
But France hit back to keep it close at the break, with Lebanon taking a 8-6 lead.<\/p>\n
Lebanon extended the lead in the second half as Michael Gabrael went over but the French refused to lie down as Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet reduced the deficit to two points again.<\/p>\n
It may have been a dead rubber but clearly neither of the two nations had been told, with both fighting to the death as Tony Francis scored to give Lebanon ascendancy again before Cesar Rogue hit back to set up a grandstand finish. <\/p>\n
The Mourgue two-point field goal then sent the game to extra time and while France looked to won it through a Rouge field goal, the twists kept coming and it was a stunning Miski try that sealed the win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lebanon and France have produced one of the wildest games in World Cup history with the Cedars scoring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-948727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}