The Rugby Club Luxembourg (RCL) 1st XV played away against Dusseldorf Dragons at the week-end for the first game of the 2015-16 season.
The German team were full of confidence after winning two warm-up matches convincingly, but RCL quickly began to impose themselves on the match and dominated throughout, racking up a total of nine tries in all to win 64-10.
It took RCL less than three minutes to score their first try of the match with flanker Jean-Baptiste Vert making a break down the blind-side, fixing the fullback and passing to Captain Paul Remedi who touched down in the corner.
The Luxembourgish side were completely on top for the rest of the half. Dominating both possession and territory, they quickly started to build an imposing lead.
Johnny Fitzpatrick converted a penalty from just outside the twenty-two metre area to bring the score up to 10-0. Shortly afterwards RCL scored after a some good counter-attacking play. The ball came out wide to centre Yared Ketema who managed to get outside his man and pass to Centre James Clarke who finished well, diving in next to the corner flag.
The German team’s first points came after a lapse of concentration in defence by the RCL back-line which led to the German outside centre cutting through. They were then awarded a penalty in front of the posts as the supporting player was taken out before he caught the ball.
Full-back Adrien Timmermans found Winger Filip Vymon out wide with a perfectly weighted cross-field kick for the away side's third try.
Fly-half James Harris was next to get in on the act. After several phases with the forwards in the twenty-two, he dummied his opposite number and cut clean through the defence to score under the posts.
To add to the German teams problems they then had a prop sent off after repeatedly offending at the breakdown.
RCL's number eight Francois Simon created the final try of the first half for Luxembourg. Spotting space out wide behind the opposition winger he kicked the ball into the corner for Winger Steven Clarke to chase down and score.
RCL keep up the intensity
The second half continued in the same fashion. RCL’s forwards dominated the set piece, especially at scrum time, and created a good platform for the backs to play off.
Despite making a handful of substitutions Dusseldorf simply couldn’t find any solutions. It didn’t take long for the away side to start scoring again.
Winger Fllip Vymon shot up in defence and timed it perfectly to intercept a pass and run in uncontested.
He was almost in again moments later after some great interplay with the backs only to just get shoved into the dead ball area before he could ground the ball.
RCL continued to pile on the pressure after that and were eventually awarded a penalty try after a Dusseldorf player was deemed to have knocked the ball on deliberately in a try-scoring situation.
Flanker Jean-Baptiste Vert then added to the score a few minutes later. Making the most of a good push in the scrum, he picked the ball and brushed off his opposite man to scored under the posts.
Centre Yared Ketema came close to scoring on a number of occasions and finally managed to touch down around the 70th minute. Switching the direction of attack he kicked a grubber ball behind the defence and won the footrace to score in the corner.
Dusseldorf were determined to win back some pride though and managed to put RCL on the back foot near the end. Quickly taking a penalty on the RCL's 22-metre line, the German hooker caught the Luxembourgish players offside and managed to drive over the line.
Encouraging start to the season
Saturday was the perfect start to the season for RCL who will play their first five matches away from home as construction of the new pitch has been expected to finish in October.
The set-piece in particular worked very well and RCL’s dominance in the scrum will be hugely encouraging for the rest of the season. The back-line made some good breaks throughout the match and looked dangerous on the counter-attack.
Honourable mentions go to Second-row Johnny Fitzpartick, who only missed one kick out of eleven, and Saman Rezapour, who was solid in the scrum all game. Man of the match went to flanker Jean-Baptiste Vert who was a constant threat in attack, picking up a try in the process, and put in some bone crunching tackles to top it off.
