And Rugby is Back!

And what a better day to restart this Blog. After 3 months in lockdown, Rugby is back!  

Today, started a new competition called Super Rugby Aotearoa (with only the NZ Super 15 teams). The first game was this morning with the Highlanders receiving the Chiefs.  

What a joy to watch rugby again. Without masks, social distancing and all that jazz.

So, what about the game? It wasn’t a great rugby game in the way it was very well played. Which is normal after months without any competition.

A few points:

Positives :

-       Referee. In one word, excellent. Paul Williams showed how to ref a match.

-       Breakdown: thanks to the ref, this is how breakdowns should be played and officiated. No more 5m rolling, no entries from the side, no slowdowns. Result? Faster rucks, faster games. And the proof you don’t have to change the laws to improve the game. Just enforce them.

-       Scrums: no resets, no collapses, no 2 minutes scrums, no milking penalties. Again, it proves when the scrums are played with the right mind set (a way to restart the game and give plenty of space for the backs to play) it can be beautiful

-       Not well played but a crazy finish. Rugby is still a  great entertaining game.  

Negatives:

-       Penalty count. I know players need time to adapt but after 60 minutes professionals still don’t understand the way it is being officiated!? Bad habits die hard.

-       Public. After all this time without rugby I was expecting full house for this match. The Forsyth Barr Stadium looked pretty empty.

We are back

It has been a while since the last post. There are many reasons why but but there is no point in discussing them now. We’re back and let’s just move on.

This Blog doesn’t replace the Web Site. We will also post news, results, photos and so on but it’s mainly a space where players, coaches, managers, friends can discuss about the Club, games, the laws. In other words, about rugby.

We area Club in Luxembourg, in the middle of Europe. We are multi-lingual and multi-cultural. Therefore, the posts can be in English, French, German, whatever.

XV Picard 3 - CSCE Luxembourg 67

Although the score may suggest an easy game for CSCE, it wasn’t. The first 10 minutes were very difficult and the team had to put a brave defence in order to avoid some serious damage in the score board.

A mix of anxiety, handling errors, bad positioning and poor decisions gave XV Picard hope the final result could be in their favour. This belief was even accentuated when they opened the score on the 10th minute after a CSCE gave away a penalty for diving in the ruck. Fortunately, the team responded well and after a fine continuity which took the ball from left to right and to left again, the action was stopped 2m from the line. Henry Seal took the ball from the end of the ruck and couldn’t be stopped before the try line. Gareth Geoffreys converted for a 7-3 lead. The team was improving but still not playing particularly well. However, near the end of the half, one fine collective move gave Daniel Ascoli time and space to enter and score. The score at half time: 3-12

Second half couldn’t be more different. The pace, skills and team work improved dramatically as the game progressed and XV Picard simply couldn’t follow. This resulted in 9 tries scored in 35 minutes. It started in the 2nd minute when, after an excellent scrum against, the opposition was in such pressure they fumble with the ball. Adrian Amouryal took advantage and picked up the ball to score. Gareth converted. 3 minutes later, in an excellent continuity move with several passes between players, Adrian scored again. 2 minutes later, another fine move with Adrian and Gareth passing the ball as the opponents were coming, ended with Gareth scoring. On the 15th minute, it was for Pascal Vineis to score and Gareth to convert. 2 minutes later, in the best action of the game, the ball was handled by at least 10 players with Malo Trévalinet doing the last gesture. Gareth converted. Till the end there was still time for Ervin Muric to score (30th minute) and Samuel Irons to score twice (21st and 34th minute) Gareth converted two of them for the final score of 3-67.

Overall, this was an excellent game for CSCE. After timid start the team improved by every minute and watching the second half, one could hardly say it was the first game of season.   

Calendar 2014/2015

Calendar  Belgium juniors Qualification 2

 20/9/2014        XV Picard - CSCE
 27/9/2014        CSCE - Charleroi
 4/10/2014       Antwerp - CSCE
11/10/2014      CSCE - BUC
18/10/2014      CSCE - Dendermonde
 8/11/2014       Leuven - CSCE
15/11/2014      CSCE - Schilde

Luxembourg-Ottignies

Tomorrow,  February 15, we’ll play Ottignies for Day 10 of  Belgium Cadets Division 1.

Players selected must be at Cessange at 12:00

Luxembourg-Ottignies

Cessange

Kick off: 13:30

Don't forget an ID, you cannot play without it.

Players:

Andres BARRAGAN

Adrian BINDER
Adrien AMOUYAL
Alexandre PIQUET
Daniel ASCOLI
Edoardo BUS
Etienne DARREAU

Etienne VON LOE

Gianluca BUSCA
Guglielmo BRUNI ROCCIA
Henry SEALE

Hugo OMBREDANE

Louis COTTAM
Lorenzo MALGARINI
Mathieu BUI VAN
Maxime VAN den EYNDE
Pascal VINEIS
Rubens ROZET
Samuel IRONS
Sebastien MOSALO