Rugby Club Luxembourg (RCL) scored their first Bundesliga Division 1 point on Saturday in a narrow loss to SC Neuenheim (SCN) at the Stade Boy Kohnen in Cessange.
The visitors had a typically giant pack but RCL held them in the scrums thanks to the propping of Saman Razepour. Early penalties were exchanged before SCN scored from a charge-down. RCL's line out functioned well again, with astute calls from JB Vert, but lack of position meant RCL couldn't dictate the pace and shape of the game as they would have liked.
The defensive kicking of SCN's 10 saved them on a few occasions but RCL's back three, and especially Charlie Stone, caught everything that was kicked at them and brought a level of security that was missed last week versus Frankfurt 1880. The game was pretty balanced all throughout, with a few off-the-ball shenanigans and a yellow card for one of the SCN players.
The visitors scored points from two penalties before RCL's Josh Van Zeeland picked up from the base of the ruck, feigned a pass out and dived over. Max Dozin converted from almost in front of the posts, to give RCL a 13-9 lead. Agonisingly, SCN scored from another charge-down and RCL narrowly missed a chance to level the points. final score 12-19 to the visitors.
Injuries to Phil Barnard and Edoardo Angioni are a serious blow to the squad, but with five ex-U19s in the squad on Saturday, it shows shows that there is now a flow of players from the RCL youth teams to the Seniors.
Next Saturday 17 September, RCL Seniors play again at home v RK Heusenstamm at Cessange at 16:00.
Meanwhile the U16s and U18s travelled to Dendermonde for their first matches of the season. Convincing victories 0-39 and 14-55 saw them both at the top of their respective divisions, but home matches against Kituro next Saturday will be a tougher test.
