Luxembourg 49 - Laakdal 21

Weather: 13°. Cloudy, no rain
Pitch: Soft
Kickoff: 13:00 (2 x 30 minutes)
Spectators: 108

Luxembourg:
1- Xavier, 2- Yannick, 3- Jason, 4- Louis, 5- Gabriel, 6- Frederico, 7- Antoine, 8- Pedro, 9- Micky, 10- Matthew, 11- Hugo, 12- Callum(c), 13- Stuart, 14- Christopher, 15- Sean

Subs: Ht 20- William for Micky, 42’ 21- Gregoire for Hugo, 50’ 19- Lucas for Pedro, 55’ 16- Niclas for Jason, 56’ 17- Quentin for Yannick, 18- David for Louis, 22- Stanley for Christopher

Score: 10’ 0-7; 11’ 5-7 Hugo, 7-7 Matthew; 25’ 12-7 Callum, 14-7 Matthew; 31’ 19-7 Christopher; 35’ 24-7 Matthew, 26-7 Matthew; 36’ 31-7 Pedro, 33-7 Matthew, 42’ 33-14; 46’ 38-14 Xavier, 40-14 Matthew; 56’ 45-14 William; 60’ 45-21

As both teams had won their first playoff game against Anderlecht this final game would decide the champion of Belgium Cadets 3rd Division.
At the start, a nervous Luxembourg team gave Laakdal the control of the game. In the first 10 minutes Laakdal was the more consistent team on the pitch and it was only logical when they opened the score. At the 10th minute, one of the many penalties conceded by Luxembourg ended in a 15m forwards charge played by the book and gave Laakdal a deserved 7-0 lead. It didn’t last long though. After only one minute, the first collective action of the Luxembourg players ended on the wing with Hugo having the space to run and score. Matthew converted and the score was even. With this try, Luxembourg calmed down and started slowly to gain control. Although the action was happening in both sides of the field, Luxembourg was always much more threatening to the opposition defence. Eventually they got a break near the end of first half when Laakdal was kicking a lot in an attempt to relief pressure. One of the long kicks ended in the hands of Sean and set in move a nice counter attack. When he was tackled, a fast ball from the ruck gave Frederico space to run only to be stopped 5m from the line. Callum followed and scored. With Matthew’s conversion half time arrived with the score at 14-7.
Luxembourg entered second half determined not to make the same mistake they did in the first 10 minutes of the game. Like a force 5 tornado, they swept away the opposition organisation and by the time Laakdal could breathe Luxembourg had scored three tries in 6 minutes. In the first minute, a penalty at half way was quickly played, quickly passed in a way Stuart and Pedro had only to fix the two last defenders to free Christopher on the wing to score. Four minutes later, Matthew set Hugo free on the side, followed and when Hugo was stopped by a desperate tackle, got the ball and scored. One minute after, in a beautiful move the ball was handled from the left side of the pitch to the right and back again to the left. Pedro got the ball and easily beat in speed the disorganized defence with a run of 60m. Matthew converted two to settle the score at 33-7.
As one could expect, Luxembourg couldn’t keep this furious pace for much longer and started to relax. This gave Laakdal some air and took the game to Luxembourg’s 22. On the 12th minute, from a scrum at 5m, Laakdal attacked on the blind and in a 2vs1 situation scored again.
With this try Laakdal got some momentum and started hammering Luxembourg with their strong forward pack. However, Luxembourg fierce defence avoided more damage to the score and it proved to be only temporary when Luxembourg came back again to score two more tries. From a scrum in the opposition half, Pedro went on the blind, passed to Gregoire on the outside who, when tackled, passed to Xavier on the inside to score. From another scrum at 5m, William took the ball and went straight to line, scoring in front of a very surprised Laakdal scrum half. Matthew converted the first try to put the score at 45-14.
Before the end of the game, Laakdal still had time for a glimpse of pride and scored a penalty try when Luxembourg collapsed a maul 2m from the line.
With a good refereeing by M. Jean Jacques Oberst, the game was played in a good spirit with moments of very good rugby. Laakdal proved they deserved to be in the final and be promoted with Luxembourg.
With the U18s victory last season in the European Championship Group D; the 5th place in this season’s Group C; the victory of the U15 in the Alsace Lorraine League last season; with the U17 champions of Belgium 3rd Division; the U15 still playing for the top in their league; with U17 and U19 competing in the Belgium 2nd Division next season, Luxembourg rugby shows it has a present but, more important, it has a future.

Man of the Match: William