Luxembourg 95 – Mons 0 (Official 85-0)

Weather: 18°. Sunny

Pitch: Good

Kickoff: 13:30

Spectators: 43

Ref: Mr.Cassart (*****)

Luxembourg:

New season, up one level in the league, just a couple of trainings before the first game, new players and holidays still in each one’s mind. All the ingredients were present to face this game with a certain apprehension. It didn’t last long as this first game couldn’t have been any better.  

From the first second the team went to the opposition half keen to show who the better team was. After just 3 minutes of play, Benji scored the first try after a short sequence of well played rucks opened his way to the try line.

At the middle of first half the score was already 26-0 and there wasn’t too much doubt who would be the winner. Xavier scored the second after a good move and support from the forwards. A good move in the backs and a perfect inside pass from Christopher, gave the space for Matthew to score the third and from a scrum at 5m, an opportunist William took the ball and went straight to the line. We were still in the 13th minute.

After this tremendous start, the game went a bit chaotic with our boys playing individual, each one eager to score. Some handling errors and penalties in rucks gave Mons some space to breath although they never had a chance to be dangerous.

Around the 20th minute another try from Callum settled the things back to normal. Then George scored his first try in U17 after a good follow up and Matthew scored again on the corner after the ball ran all the back line. Benji converted 5 of the 7 tries, to, put the score 45-0 at half time.

Second half wasn’t much different. From Mons restart, Pedro recovered a lost ball and ran 70m avoiding defenders to score his first try of the game. This quick try didn’t stop Mons from fighting back and one has to respect the way they did it. Surpassed physically and technically, Mons boys never gave up and played always in a good rugby spirit.

Like in the first half, some avoidable penalties gave Mons a platform to keep the game in the middle of the pitch and the score unchanged. They could even have scored from a penalty but the ball went low. Feeling the danger, Luxembourg went back to attack and the rest of the game was just a sequence of tries from our boys. First by Christopher after a good off load from

Pedro, then Gregoire made a good run and passed to George for his 2^nd try of the afternoon. Pedro scored two more tries, Gregoire another two and Matthew his third. Benji converted five settling the final score 95-0 (although the official game sheet indicates 85-0).

This was a perfect start of the season for the boys. It was a very good game for the beginning of the season and all people around the pitch were pleased by the quality of rugby played.

Though the result was very good, there’s still a lot of work to do. Rucks and Line Outs are far from perfect and the collective isn’t always present as it should. Hopefully this will improve with training. Well done.