The Luxembourg under-18 rugby team commenced the European Championships in Toulouse with a very disappointing 17-22 loss to Lithuania on Saturday. Starting extremely nervously with a kick off that did not travel the required 10 metres, then having two kicks charged down in the opening stanza, Luxembourg settled down after 4 minutes of concerted Lithuanian pressure, which actually saw a try go begging when the Lithuanian winger knocked on in the goal area.

From the resulting scrum Luxembourg broke out and eventually exerted pressure at the lineout in the Lithuania 22, and a poor pass between the halfbacks saw Josh van Zeeland pounce on a loose ball for the opening try after 10 minutes and with Daniel Ascoli’s conversion Luxembourg led 7-0.

Almost immediately Lithuania got back into Luxembourg territory and a penalty against Adrien Amouyal saw the score closed to 7-3. Three minutes later Luxembourg mounted a fine attack again off a dominant scrum for fly half Cameron Cullen to make a fine break and after two transfers centre Paddy Fox crossed for Luxembourg’s second try and another successful conversion by Ascoli had the score at 14-3 and Luxembourg totally in charge. The Young Lions then appeared to be satisfied with the performance and eased off the pressure allowing Lithuania back in and eventually a try resulted from a sustained attack in the Luxembourg 22m for a 14-8 halftime scoreline.

Despite Luxembourg being in a comfortable position to build on the performance in the second half it was Lithuania who controlled the ball best and many unforced errors by Luxembourg, combined with some very poor discipline, allowed both field position and possession to be dominated by Lithuania. Earning the wrath of the referee by repeating many infringements, and not listening to his instructions the game slowly turned and Lithuania scored again from a sustained period on attack on the Luxembourg 5 metre line and with a fine conversion took the lead at 14-15.

Luxembourg’s lack of experience at being behind during a match this year, where both club teams have been recording large victories and remain unbeaten in the Belgium championship, was then cruelly exposed as players panicked and although Ascoli kicked a penalty, the final necessary winning score was not forthcoming, and the team continued to play into Lithuania’s hand by playing close to the rucks and mauls and consequently were unable to release the backline in any sort of flowing attack, and the game finished with a loss of possession and Lithuania kicking the ball off the park for a deserved victory at 17-22.

The positives for Luxembourg were the scrum and lineout, which both functioned well, but the errors behind the advantage line, and in contact, plus the poor discipline are serious areas of concern before the match on Wednesday against Croatia.

In the other matches in B division Czech Republic defeated Latvia, Switzerland beat Croatia, and Ukraine were victorious over Serbia.

Marty Davis is national technical director at the Luxembourg Rugby Federation. For more information, check its Facebook and Twitter feeds.