Liege 0 - Luxembourg 33

Weather: 12°. Cloudy. No rain

Pitch: Soft

Kickoff: 13:30

Spectators: 17

Ref: M. Di Ciccio (*****)

Luxembourg:

With five changes in the starting team and a few last minute absences, Luxembourg couldn’t produce the same quality rugby we’ve seen in the last games. Not the fault of the players brought in, tough. They met the expectations, showed the team doesn’t have only 15 players and fully deserved the opportunity, but the lack of routines and pace was too obvious.

Both teams didn’t play well, with lots of interruptions due to handling errors or penalties. However, Luxembourg was always the best team on the pitch with glimpses of brilliance.

The game started well for Luxembourg. On the 5th minute, the forwards took the ball to the far right of the pitch. From there the ball ran all the back line and Christopher had just to run and score. Impressive. Four minutes later, Christopher scored his second with another nice move in the backs. Benji converted both to set the score 14-0. After these early and easy tries the game went into a festival of handling errors, consecutive turnovers and penalties and we were even lucky  when an handling error a couple of meters from the score line, prevented Liege from scoring just before the referee whistled half time.

Thanks to a better organization and attitude in second half, Luxembourg spent almost all the 30 minutes in the opposition half. However, there was always a handling error or a positional mistake to stop the decisive pass. Eventually, taking advantage of the opposition collapse, Luxembourg scored 3 tries in the last 10 minutes. On the 49th minute, Stanley caught a ball in the air at half way and went thru the defense almost without challenge. 2 minutes later, the forwards worked hard in the ruck to give Christophe his first hat-trick. On the 55th minute the game ended as it started with another magnificent try. The forwards took the ball to the far left, recycled it to the backs and this time Matthew had space in the middle to score. Benji converted two the set the final score at 0-33.  

This elaborated but well deserved victory puts Luxembourg at the top of the table. 

Man of the Match: Christopher