The Luxembourg national team defeated Slovenia on Saturday in Ljubljana in the top of the table clash for supremacy in the European Nations Championship division 2C.
After heavy rain early in the day, the game was actually played in pleasant conditions although the ball and the ground were both a little slippery, and two evenly matched teams contested for the full 80 minutes in front of a large partisan crowd. The match was unique due to the fact that Slovenia fielded five Skofic brothers, a world record in international rugby, which guaranteed wide media interest and all of the siblings contributed to the Slovenian cause although one was injured after 13 minutes and had to be replaced.
Luxembourg started very strongly and had a scoring opportunity after only 2 minutes but Ciaran Keane narrowly missed from 45 metres. It was at the scrum where Luxembourg was able to completely dominate and with the lineout also functioning well, the Red Lions controlled field position and had an excellent break from Francois Simon which almost resulted in a try but the wealth of possession was not able to be turned into points at all. It was Slovenia who scored first with a penalty after 14 minutes and a second on 37 minutes, which also saw Philippe Vimond sent to the sin bin and Luxembourg went to the break a man down and 6 points in arrears.
It was frustrating as many things were being done well, but some basics such as ball presentation and especially ruck and maul defence were very poor and allowed Slovenia to often escape the pressure that should have been applied.
Second half
In the second half the match continued to be an arm wrestle with the Luxembourg maul often able to travel 10-20 metres but unable to get the ball over the line due in part to Slovenia tactics or Luxembourg impatience. Eventually on the 59th minute the pressure did tell and an illegal collapse by Slovenia finally resulted in the Croatian referee awarding a completely justified penalty try, which Keane converted for a 6-7 lead to Luxembourg.
From the restart Luxembourg gifted possession back to Slovenia and after a sustained 3 minute attack Slovenia crashed over to retake the lead although the missed conversion meant the scoreline was 11-7 with seventeen minutes remaining.
Again Luxembourg attacked and Slovenia counter attacked before the Red Lions pack was able to control the field position for a long period in the left hand corner and following a series of lineouts, mauls and penalties, the forwards rumbled to the line “assisted” by fullback Adrien Timmermans and half back Stu Logier, with the latter able to place the ball on the line for the vital try. Gareth Geoffreys added the conversion and Luxembourg led 11-14 with 10 minutes to play.
Under pressure
Slovenia attacked and Luxembourg resisted, and the crowd encouraged the local players to the desired victory but this Luxembourg team has a very strong character and every man in the final period performed heroically, none more so than skipper Saman Rezapour who had sustained a heavy knock earlier but refused to submit. To add further pressure Zelito Neves dos Santos received a yellow card with 7 minutes remaining and Luxembourg played this period with only 14 players. Whenever it appeared that Slovenia might make the final thrust, someone would pull off an exceptional tackle to stop the flow and in two instances turn over the ball. The best of these was by Johnny Fitzpatrick who drove the centre back 5 metres in a magnificent effort.
Slovenia were awarded a penalty in almost the exact position as Keane’s first shot, and as time was already up, they decided to go for the posts and salvage a draw but the shot hit the post and rebounded to Vinnie Giffard who eventually set a maul and despite a wobbly kick from Adrien Timmermans that did not go out, another wonderful gang tackle saw Slovenia penalised and finally the ball left the park and Luxembourg had a very deserved and courageous victory.
Walferdange sacrifice
There were many fine performances in this game from both sides, but special mention must be made of the four Walferdange players, Neves dos Santos (34 caps), Julien da Col (35 caps) Benji Blanchett (2 caps) and Tim Seite (19 caps), as their club had been very poorly treated by the Belgium federation in refusing to reschedule their club match due to international commitments despite the FBRB regulations specifically allowing for such a deferment, which resulted in Walferdange being forced to default the final game and therefore be excluded from the semi-finals next week. Whilst hugely disappointing for Walferdange, the boys used it as positive motivation and all four played possibly their best ever games representing both their club and country superbly.
Luxembourg now lead the 2C championship by 3 points and with the final game against Denmark at Josy Barthel stadium on 9 May are only one win away from successive championships in two divisions, having won 2D last year.
Marty Davis is national technical director at the Luxembourg Rugby Federation. For more information, check its Facebook and Twitter feeds.