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See the incredible moment when barefoot soccer stars chase a thief in a dramatic chase after their team hotel room was robbed
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A vision has emerged of the dramatic moment when Lebanon players chased and apprehended a would-be thief on the streets of Manchester less than 24 hours before their World Cup clash with Jamaica.
You would have to be very brave or very stupid to try twice to rob an international rugby team – but that’s exactly what happened to the Lebanon in Manchester prior to their World Cup clash with Jamaica.
Just days ago, the Cedars were targeted by thieves at their team hotel, with the crooks making off with laptops, electronic devices, and even the team shirts, which were later dumped at a nearby construction site.
Then, leading up to Jamaica’s 74-12 thump by the Cedars, players confronted a stranger who walked into the team room of their hotel.
The man decided to flee, but he was quickly chased by the athletes, who held him until the police arrived.
CCTV footage captured the moment Lebanese players chased the criminal through the streets of Manchester before arresting him until police arrived
The vision shows players in various stages of undressing, some barefoot and one shirtless after jumping off a massage table to chase the would-be crook.
The man tried to run, but had no hope against a team of athletes chasing the fastest players in the world.
Lebanon coach Michael Cheika said the players were excited by the incident and believed they were part of a televised police series.
“We had another intruder last night,” he said.
‘They say we’re part-time – I think the other part-time’ [work] we do is security.
“Someone came into the team room and I’m not sure what happened, but they called me, thank God, so I went down and sorted it all out and the police did their part after that.
‘It was an early kick-off’ [against Jamaica] – I didn’t want them chasing men at ten o’clock in the evening.
The Lebanese rugby league team has enjoyed an incredible Rugby League World Cup tournament on the pitch – and plenty of drama off it
“They thought they were on an episode of Law and Order, the guys. It’s been a bit of a crazy week with all that going on and trying not to have it as a distraction.”
It was a surreal experience for Cheika, who is also in England in his role as the coach of the Argentina Rugby Union.
‘It was pretty weird when I woke up to do an early Zoom [on Friday morning UK time],,I went to the team room and everything was gone”, he said.
It’s been a dramatic week for Lebanon coach Cheika (left) and captain Mitch Moses, but the Cedars have done well to keep their World Cup campaign on track
“The hotel said we’d be robbed an hour later. We got our comic back, that’s the most important thing.
“The first thing I’d steal would be the Lebanese sweaters – I don’t care about the computers. But everyone dealt with those distractions fairly well, we’re going to go beyond that.’
Lebanon’s big win over Jamaica means they will play against Australia in the quarter-finals of the World Cup.