SF: Asal wins a Rugby match against the All Black

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[2] Mostafa Asal (EGY) 3-1 [3] Paul Coll (NZL)  9-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-6 (73m)

I hated it. I truly did.

Several times, I saw Paul stumble exactly the same way as Grégoire during his match with Mostafa, just clipping the Egyptian’s foot. So it’s not an accident, and I’m not saying it’s deliberate but something has got to change in the placement of Mostafa’s feet after he hits his shots.

Also, you don’t have to bang your opponent out of balance to ask for a let – especially when you are getting the decisions in your favour most of the time! This is not rugby, this is squash. The trouble with this match was that Paul doesn’t mind physical contact, and can take it without complaint, being the All Black that he is. But I don’t understand why the ref didn’t ask Mostafa to refrain from too much physical contact!

Now, Paul was in the way, a lot. Like he was against Greg Lobban, I felt. That’s something that didn’t used to happen a few months ago. It would be interesting to understand why, and maybe work on it.

To be clear, I kept watching the match until the end, and it’s was way past midnight when we finished, but I truly hated it. This is not squash. Whatever that is, I don’t like it.

Did I mention I didn’t like it?

PSA report

The final match of semi-finals night at the El Gouna International 2025 saw current World No.1 Mostafa Asal take on former World No.1 Paul Coll for the 18th time with a place in the final Platinum event of the season up for grabs.

The first game of the contest wasn’t one for the record books. The pair were involved in lots of discussions with the referee withe majority of points being won on decisions rather than winning shots or errors. Coll was the one able to maintain his concentration the better of the two and ran through to 9-6. Asal clawed back the deficit to level at 9-9 but Coll came through 11-9 to take the lead.

With the backing of the El Gouna crowd, the World No.1 responded. They started to find a better length on the court, which meant fewer referee decisions and a better quality of rally. With this improved length, more opportunities started to appear for the 23-year-old, which he gladly took on his way to equalising.

In another stop-start game, Asal controlled proceedings. The 2022 El Gouna champion was forcing Coll into tough movements and mopping up the loose balls whether that was with winners or benefiting from Strokes. The New Zealander was struggling to make inroads and saw the points sail away from him as Asal took the lead 2-1.

Asal could see the finish line in sight at the mid-stage of the fourth game and knew how to get there. He stepped up the court to narrow down the angles of Coll and after more refereeing decisions came featured, the ‘Raging Bull’ took the game 11-6 to move into his seventh final of the season.

Mostafa : “It’s always a tough match against Paul, always tricky.

“We’re both in the middle so much, we’re both big guys and quite physical so it’s hard for any referee to take charge of this match but credit to Roy for today. We’re trying to make it as free-flowing as possible but as I say, were both physical, so it is what it is.

“It was quite difficult actually. There’s both negatives and positives, I had like three days in El Gouna so maybe I could go and play football and really chill out. Maybe that’s why is started a bit slow today but thankfully I’m through to the final.

“It’s quite unique actually, playing with Farag. We’ve played a lot, we’ve played more than 25 times now I think. He’s a legend and hopefully it will be another top match and I think we made Egypt proud today.”