Monday, September 21, 2009

Luxembourg 78 - Celtic 0

Weather: 17° and sunny

Pitch: Good

Start: 11:00 (2 x 35 minutes)

Spectators: 26


With a good referring from Mr. Etienne Cassart, Luxembourg started with:


1- Niclas, 2- Yannick, 3- Xavier, 4- Mario D, 5- Gabriel, 6- Lucas, 7- Antoine R, 8- Pedro (C), 9-William, 10- Matthiew, 11- Hugo, 12- Callum, 13- Stuart, 14- Gregoire, 15- Sean


Subs: 48’ 18- Micky for William and 19- Benji for Matthew, 49’ 16- Rodolphe for Xavier, 55’ 17- Louis for Mario D, 57’ 20- Francesco for Hugo and 21- Charly for Gregoire.


Scorers: Callum (3 T), Sean (2T), Hugo (2T), Stuart, Gregoire, Yannick, Pedro and Benji.

Matthew (6 C), Benji (3 C).


The game was much more interesting than the score may suggest. After a nervous start, with a few handling and positioning errors, Luxembourg opened the score in the 4th minute. Celtic conquered the ball in the ruck and kicked to our half where Sean caught it and ran into Celtic defenders only to cut the defence apart and sent Hugo storming down the right channel to score in the centre.

From here the match report becomes the description of the tries. One hadn’t to wait long for the second try. In the 8th minute, Pedro got the ball from our own throw in the line out. With a fine flowing move in the backs the ball reached Stuart to score in the middle of the posts. Matthew converted. In the 14th minute, after 3 ruck phases the ball was recycled to the backs and, after 3 good passes, Callum entered between two defenders to score in the middle. Matthew converted. In the 18th minute, Sean caught another ball ballooned to our half and went through the defence to fix most of the Celtic team. The ball came to the backs and with another fine move reached Gregoire who scored in the corner.

In the 24th minute, a penalty in our favour was quickly played till the ball reached Hugo sending him storming down again till the line, beating two defenders in his way. Matthew converted.

In the 27th minute, Sean picked another ball kicked in panic and decided to do the job alone cutting through the defence and scoring in the middle. Conversion by Matthew.

In the 35th minute, we won our scrum, the ball was passed in the backs till it reached Callum who entered again in a Celtic defence now very much disorganised. Conversion by Matthew.

Score at Half Time: Luxembourg: 45 – Celtic 0.

Second half started in the same way. In the 3rd minute, Pedro got the ball from the scrum, fixed 3 defenders and passed to Sean unstoppable till the score line. Conversion by Matthew. In the 7th minute, Callum picked up a ball from the ground and went through the defence to score in the middle of the posts.

At this point, the boys started to show some signs of fatigue allowing Celtic to relieve the pressure. For 10 minutes nothing really happened with both teams making a lot of mistakes. After fresh blood was put in the pitch, Luxembourg went back to the right track scoring one of the best tries of the match. Inside the 18th minute, Benji got a ball and started a fine movement with the ball passing several players and ending up again in Benji’s hands for a try in the middle of the posts. Conversion by Benji.

In the 27th minute, another try this time pure forwards work: 4 ruck phases well played ended with Yannick falling in the try area. The referee decided for a penalty try because of a bad gesture from a Celtic boy. Conversion by Benji.

Finally in the 30th the score was settled. After a good move in the backs, Pedro entered in the corner to score in the middle of the posts. Conversion by Benji.

Even with this heavy score, the game was always interesting with some good moves and good skills from our boys. There are still a lot to correct and to improve but it was very pleasant to see them playing like they did so early in the season.

What looks like an easy victory, was a result of a very serious game from the boys, good collective moves, good defence and good commitment.

The Celtic team also contributed to it as they lacked nothing in spirit and never really gave up. A couple of bad gestures (coming more of frustration than anything else) doesn’t take away their merit.

A final word for the referee: He always had the game under control and had much more good decisions than bad ones. Very good.


Man of the Match: Sean

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