Luxembourg 66 - Schilde 5

Weather: Sunny
Temperature: 22°
Pitch: Hard
Kickoff: 13:30
Spectators: 67
Ref: M. Oberts (*****)

Luxembourg:

Last Saturday, Luxembourg Cadets received Schilde for the last game of the regular season.
With promotion to Division 1 guaranteed, the Cadets wanted to finish in beauty playing good rugby and staying unbeaten in front of the best crowd we have seen at Cessange this season.

Maybe because they wanted to perform too well in front of the huge number of parents and friends present or maybe because the team was in its large majority composed of first year Cadets, in first half we saw a Luxembourg team too anxious to be able to perform well and struggling to keep the usual fluidity of their game. They allowed Schilde some possession which ended in a try on the 22^nd minute. Fortunately, before this try, Martin Pacaud had kicked two clever kicks deep in the opposition half and the good follow up ended with Gauthier Lachaise scoring the first try and Martin scoring the second.

Even struggling to keep their rugby structured, Luxembourg scored two more tries before half time when Michi Rizzi came behind a scrum to score and a very good counter attack ended with Gauthier scoring again. Martin converted 3 of the tries and at half time the score was 26-5.

If in first half Schilde could contest for possession and territory, second half was all Luxembourg. Reentering the pitch less nervous and much more composed, Luxembourg superiority was never in doubt and the reward came with 6 more tries. Julian Vercruysse scored two on the wing after very good transmissions in the back line. Gauthier scored his third in the afternoon with a solo run after receiving the ball from a restart. Robert Irons scored in a good counter attack and Martin added two more. Martin converted 5 to settle the final score 66-5.

Another good performance from the Luxembourg Cadets to end this excellent season unbeaten, having scored 731 points in 12 games, conceding only 42 and showing a discipline in and out of the pitch applauded by referees and adversaries. This result is even more impressive knowing Luxembourg aligned 45 players (3 whole teams!) in official games with 23 players scoring points. It shows the quality and depth of junior rugby in Luxembourg and how things look promising for the big challenge in Division 1 next season.

Congratulations.  

Man of the Match: Christian Olsen