04.09.10 / Future Team Basel FT - RC Würenlos 13:16 no report 12.06.10 / 1st Team RC Avusy - RFC Basel 76:0 no report 06.06.10 / Birds CERN Wildcats - Basel Birds 46:7 no report 05.06.10 / 1st Team RC La Chaux-de-Fonds - RFC Basel 7:19 no report 05.06.10 / Future Team Basel FT - RC Solothurn 44:10 no report 05.06.10 / Birds Basel Birds - Yverdon Amazones 10:60 no report 18.05.10 / Future Team RC Würenlos - Basel FT 0:26 no report 08.05.10 / Birds Basel Birds - RC Konstanz 0:40 no report 01.05.10 / Future Team Basel FT - RC Luzern 20:16 no report 01.05.10 / 1st Team RFC Basel - RC Neuchâtel 13:22 no report 24.04.10 / Future Team Basel FT - RC Zug 51:5 no report 24.04.10 / 1st Team RFC Basel - Rugby Lugano 11:19 no report 11.04.10 / 1st Team RFC Bishops St. Gallen - RFC Basel 22:33 no report 11.04.10 / Birds Grasshopper Club Zürich Women - Basel Birds 55:0 no report 10.04.10 / Future Team Lausanne Université Club - Basel FT 34:6 no report 27.03.10 / Birds Bern Red Devils - Basel Birds 80:0 no report 27.03.10 / 1st Team RC Avusy - RFC Basel 45:0 no report 20.03.10 / 1st Team RFC Basel - RC La Chaux-de-Fonds 6:21 no report 20.03.10 / Future Team Basel FT - RC Solothurn 22:13 no report 13.03.10 / 1st Team RFC Basel - RC Yverdon 0:59 Cup game played in Yverdon. 14.11.09 / Future Team Basel FT - Grasshopper Club Zürich II 8:31 no report 14.11.09 / Birds Basel Birds - Zurich Valkyries 5:43 no report 14.11.09 / 1st Team RC Fribourg - RFC Basel 17:16 no report 08.11.09 / Birds Yverdon Amazones - Basel Birds 77:0 no report 07.11.09 / Future Team Basel FT - OC Monthey 12:13 no report 07.11.09 / 1st Team RFC Basel - RC Albaladéjo 27:10 Scorers Tries: Benji, Stevie, Danny, Tim Ginz Cons: Benji 3 Pens: Benji The bad weather cleared in the morning, giving way to perfect conditions for rugby. Even the pitch looked quite good. Stand-in coach Andrew White expected a much tougher game than the season opener in Lausanne, and so it proved. Kick off was delayed by 30 minutes so the Referee could examine the licenses in minute detail. Further forensic tests are rumoured. Basel started well with a high tempo forcing a few mistakes. However, straight away, penalties were being committed by both sides with monotonous regularity- some unfathomable, but others justified. After five minutes, Basel were penalised for offside; and by not retreating 10m on the quick tap gave the Alba fly-half a chance for a straightforward penalty kick – 0-3 to the visitors. Basel began to play some better rugby, the forwards rucking well and providing a lot of quick ball. The Alba centres seemed to control the runs of Tim and Julian well however, and the rucking became less secure putting Wieland under pressure. However, Basel drew level thanks to a good penalty from Benji on 15 minutes, but Alba came back and their rolling maul began to work for them. The Basel defence held out on the try line for a number of phases, but eventually the Alba forwards were able to drive over the line and ground the ball near the posts. The try was converted and Alba led 3-10. The game was becoming a stop start affair, with the referee keen to blow up for penalties. The Alba scrum was also dominating the Basel pack, winning ball against the head. The Basel lineout was also not as good as it could be, and Alba were able to prevent Basel getting back into what had now become a scrappy game. Half time came, 3-10. The second half was also scrappy, but Basel were able to improve the scrummaging at least, and the penalty count dropped. But as the skies darkened, it looked like the game might ebb away with another poor performance. Stevie was shown the yellow card after 50 minutes, for handling on the ground when isolated – more of a team yellow with the referee penalising consistent infringements, actually. However, after an hour of play and with Stevie back on the field, Basel were finally beginning to make headway. The phases were being strung together and again, the quick ball came with more aggressive rucking. The breakthrough try came after 65 minutes- Benji scoring in the corner for a great team try involving forwards and backs, and in contrast to the previous hour of rugby. Benji narrowly missed the touchline conversion to leave Basel trailing 8-10. After 70 minutes, Huey and Gilbert replaced Jonathan and Charlie. Jonathan put in another good performance, but Huey was brought in to 2nd row to add some power and aggression to the scrum, with Stevie moving to the back row. Gilbert was put on to add some security to the back three, with Alba kicking more out of defence, and Charlie having seen a nice bit of ball but also a fair bit of contact too. Huey made a huge and immediate impact on the game, putting in some big tackles, rucking forcefully and going on a couple of rampaging runs. This put Basel on the front foot finally, and confidence suddenly appeared throughout the team as Alba tired. The loose forwards were beginning to make good breaks and relishing plenty of ball carrying, Lucas had begun to control the backs and varied the play nicely, putting the Alba back 3 under pressure with good kicking. By now, Basel were camped in the Alba half, and Stevie drove over the line close to the posts to give Basel the lead. Benji converted for Basel to lead 15-10 with five minutes to play. The onus was now on Basel to try and secure another score to deny Alba a losing bonus point. In the 80th minute, the backs broke down the right wing, with some slick passing and a good run by Gilbert. He looked as if he had scored but the referee did not agree. But Basel retained the ball well, and after a couple more phases in the forwards, the Basel maul drove over the line with Danny at the bottom to score the try. Benji missed the conversion, and Basel led 20-10 heading into injury time. With the game turned on its head, the aim now was to sneak a fourth try to claim an unlikely bonus point. Lucas made a great kick and chased down the middle, with the covering defender kicking the ball dead to give Basel a 5-metre scrum. The ball was won, and again the phases were joined together with both the forwards and backs making short gains but tying the Alba defence in. A pass to Tim 10 m out was enough for him to evade three covering defenders and dive over to the left of the posts to secure a bonus point win, much to the delight of the crowd. Benji thumped over the conversion as the last play of the game, with Basel winning 27-10. Team Danny Wyss Tobias Bertschi Tim Fürst (captain) Ian Carvel Stevie Lazarus Jonathan Matlock Manuel Schneider Matthias Gysin Wieland Schmid Lucas Quintillan Raphi Gamboni Julian Krumrey Tim Ginz Charlie Hui Benji McGuinness Huey Carr (Matlock, 70) Gilbert Santini (Hui, 70) Greg Allen Kai McCarthy Juan Blasco Andrew White 31.10.09 / Birds Basel Birds - CERN Wildcats 10:24 no report 17.10.09 / Future Team RC Luzern - Basel FT 24:13 no report 17.10.09 / 1st Team RC Neuchâtel - RFC Basel 20:14 no report 10.10.09 / Birds RC Konstanz - Basel Birds 22:10 no report 10.10.09 / Future Team RC Zug - Basel FT 24:13 no report 10.10.09 / Others RC Konstanz/BW - RFC Basel COBS 17:29 no report 10.10.09 / 1st Team RC Lugano - RFC Basel 30:14 The long trip to Lugano proved to be a disappointing day as we slumped to a 30-14 loss to Lugano. Our young side with an average age of just 23 were put the the sword by the experienced Lugano side. Lugano started very quickly and managed to rack up 23 unanswered points within 25 minutes, before we got into our stride. After that we more than matched them for field position and possession and scored two unanswered tries to get the score back to 23-14. However, shortly before the end and against the run of play, Lugano got into our 22 from a penalty and scored their trademark rolling maul try to take the game away from us. Due to injury and missing players it was always going to be a difficult task in Lugano. Shorn of our 3 big second rows, the scrum as expected struggled all day. However the line out was excellent and we could rely on our own ball and disrupt theirs. Our backs were always dangerous but Lugano were aware of that and their back row covered across the very small pitch. So even though we broke their line quite often, all our breaks were snapped up. Our tries came from an interception by Tim Ginz and then a great snipe from Wieland following a ruck 5m out. Both were converted by Benji. Match points. 1 point goes to Benji, who looked supremely comfortable at the back. Kicking long when needed and running when it was on. Once making almost 60m through the middle of the Lugano team, before being caught. Thimon gets two points – for the solid hookers game and strong defence. Wieland gets 3 points for controlling the game well and scoring a great opportunist try. Despite the slow start the team battled hard and with a little luck could have won the game and all were proud of the effort that had been put into the game. This was really 4 points lost though. 1. Danny Wyss 2. Thimon Fürst 3. Bruno Baltes 4. Kai McArthy 5. Greg Allan 6. Matthias Gysin 7. Manuel Schneider 8. Stevie Lazarus 9. Wieland Schmid 10. Mark Love 11. David Allgöwer 12. Lucas Quintillan 13. Tim Ginz 14. Fabrice Jourdain 15. Benji McGuiness 16. Raphi Gamboni 17. Mike Bartlett 18. Andy White 19. Julian Krumrey 03.10.09 / 1st Team RFC Basel - RC Bishops St Gallen 38:6 2 from 2 this weekend for the 1st team. In the league against St. Gallen, the boys recorded a comfortable 38-6 bonus point win. Then in the second match the spare players/subs recorded a 29-0 win against the COBS. St. Gallen came to town with Tibor, who has moved back to his hometown to play due to work commitments. And it proved to be an unsatisfactory return as we controlled the game from start to finish. Benji made an impact in attack and defence early on, slotting a penalty that came as a result of Luki chasing his own clearance kick and putting the receiver under pressure. And defensively he made a last ditch try saving tackle on the SG hooker. The ball squirted out the side of our ruck and the hooker picked and went, but Benji’s tackle was solid and we managed to protect the line well. Wieland was then harshly called offside at a scrum. In reality the opposing SH was just slow (suppose he would have to be if Wieland caught him ;-)) but the penalty was given and the scores were level. Penalties were exchanged to make it 6-6 before we finally got the score to relax the team. On 15 minutes a text book planned move from the 22 had Ian driving hard for the line but just held up short. Stevie came charging for the next phase and crashed through the tackle for a great forwards try. This gave the team the confidence to really kick on. 5 minutes later, after great approach work by the whole team, quick ball was gained on the 5m line and Manu picked and went down the blind side, and went through the lone defender to score. Mark slotted the difficult touchline conversion. The pressure continued, but we could not score further. So half time came round with a comfortable 21-6 lead. One change was made, with Morgan replacing Mark at fly half. The second half started brightly, with a great break from Luki, but was spoiled when the cover went off their feet.. Tim and Luki together had been a thorn in the SG side most of the game and for the second time they chased down the receiver of a long kick resulting in a turn over. But the backs where not hogging all the defensive limelight. Danny nailed the hard running number 8 in a text book tackle, then a minute later ripped the ball out in another tackle. Changes were made which disrupted things for a short while. Kai came on for Danny 10 mins into the second half for his first appearance in the front row and Josh replaced Wieland at SH. But things soon returned to normal. Tim F. took a scrum against the head and the ball was shipped quickly to Tim who loves running at a ragged defence. He went through the line and got under the posts to make Benji’s conversion a formality. 28-6. The remainder of the subs then came on with 20 to go. Luki was sinbinned shortly after for what the ref judged to be a dangerous tackle. But we were on the hunt for the bonus point. Matthias made a great break and went 40meters before being brought down. Fast ball was fed out for Tim to stride in for his second. Then Tim fielded a poor defensive kick and went through a couple of weak tackles to score his third. Benji missed with difficult conversions, so the game finished at 38-6. Match points this week. Tim could have claimed another 3 points with his hatrick, but he got MOM last week and his opposite number was all over the place so unlucky. 1 goes to Danny again for great efforts in defence especially. 1 point also to Kai for his first match for stepping up to the front row, even if most of the scrums were unopposed. 2 points go to Luki. He may have got the 3 points if he had not been yellow carded. But the 3 points go to Manuel, who is steadily becoming more of an influence in games and scored a great pick and go try. The villainous actions come from the second game against the COBS. Josh gets one for hitting the crossbar with a drop goad conversion from right in front. Juan also for kicking a conversion off the floor rather than a drop goal when also right in front. Do we give Kai a minus point for not returning the ball for an opposition kick off. The ball was sat a meter away from him and he made the SG 10 come and collect it. Bad sportsmanship some might say. Funny others might say. I think we need a vote. It would be sad for Kai to lose his well earned point. But then again it would be amusing. Next week we travel to Lugano for a vital game. Lugano is a difficult place to go and win, but this is a must with Fribourg breathing down our necks. We want to consolidate second place in the league. 1. Danny Wyss 2. Thimon Fürst 3. Bruno Baltes 4. Ian Carvell 5. Eugene Carr 6. Matthias Gysin 7. Manuel Schneider 8. Stevie Lazarus 9. Wieland Schmid 10. Mark Love 11. Fabrice Jourdain 12. Lucas Quintillan 13. Tim Ginz 14. Christof Liennert 15. Benji McGuiness 16. Kai McArthy 17. Greg Allen 18. David Allgöwer 19. Henrik Haerden 20. Julien Krumrey 21. Morgan Cooney 22. Josh Ray 03.10.09 / Future Team Basel FT - Lausanne Université Club 0:67 no report 26.09.09 / Future Team Basel FT - RC Würenlos 15:24 no report 26.09.09 / Birds Basel Birds - Bern Red Devils 0:79 no report 26.09.09 / 1st Team RFC Basel - RC Avusy 3:16 Sadly the winning run came to an end with a 16:3 home loss to Avusy. A bitter pill really, because we deserved more from the game considering the way we played. The game was very close through out, with both defences very strong. Some excellent attacking play on both sides, but the difference basically came down to Avusy’s excellent maul. Two tries, resulted from their catch and drive, one early on and one very late to steal what would have been a very deserved bonus point and could have been more. Reto came into replace the injured Stevie, even though carrying injury himself. The desire to play Avusy was too strong. Luki came back into the backline after injury, putting Fabrice back onto the bench. And Bruno came back into the front row for Toby. Normally Avusy travel very poorly, but this time a strong side walked off the coach at the Matte. They were bolstered by 3 players returning from suspension, but with 3 others still suspended. Amazing statistics with us only 4 weeks into the season. But Avusy’s reputation precedes them and the team were well prepared for such shenanigans. To the point that it was ourselves who laid down the first marker. In the 1st minute, the Avusy winger has the temerity to chip Ian, whose body check left him sprawling on the floor and gained Ian a 10 minute rest. This ultimately resulted in a 3 point penalty conversion. Avusy got into the 22 from another penalty and started a catch and drive that was pulled down. The next catch and drive seemed to be held short, but they managed to force their way over to lead 8-0. Benji replied with a penalty following good pressure in their 22. And half time came with the score at 3-8. Ladi was leading the forwards who seemed more than a match for the Avusy pack. Mark controlled field position with some well placed touch finders and the backs managed to break the line regularly. The defence was solid, the Matthias and Manuel as usually working tirelessly. Luki, Tim and Mark (yes Mark), shackled the dangerous inside center. Confidence was high that we could turn the score line round. The second half flew by with Basel continuing to apply pressure on the line and with some great breaks by the backs, with Tim and Christof in particular looking very dangerous. But the Avusy cover defence worked tirelessly and we could not convert any breaks. Huey replaced Reto after his foot injury flared up early in the second half and produced a great moment of legend. First nailed an opposition prop in a great tackle. Then later with the ball, already 50 yards away following a kick, he noticed a stray fist in a ruck that was breaking up and took the culprit to task. Grabbing him by the collar we heard “F##king hit me” being screamed repeatedly in his opponents face. The man sh*t himself and declined Huey’s invitation, running back to his buddies with his tail firmly between his legs. The sad thing was an excellent kick chase and tackle had resulted in the ball going into touch for our line out on the Avusy 5m line. But we were brought back all the way to our 10m line for a penalty, which Mark put into touch outside the 22. So we ended up losing a great chance to score by getting a line out over 20m backwards. But we could not score despite the pressure. Avusy ended up in our 22 and in the last few minutes, scored a try in exactly the same way as before, despite us holding out for many phases. The Avusy flyhalf, who couldn’t kick off the tee if his life depended on it nailed a 35m drop goal, in the last minute, to take the score the 16-3. But at the final whistle, the guys walked exhausted off the pitch to congratulations from all for a great effort. We defended manfully and forged many chances against a very strong A league level side, but sadly could not quite convert. Match points. 1 goes to Huey for putting the wind up Avusy. 2 to Ladi for all round game, particularly nailing Avusy’s big inside center more than once and 3 to Tim, who also got the MOM award from Avusy for some great defence and great breaks. Ian could get a minus 1 for his yellow card, but it also let Avusy know that we were not going to take their usual crap, so he gets a let off. 1. Danny Wyss 2. Thimon Fürst 3. Bruno Baltes 4. Ian Carvell 5. Ret Maurer 6. Matthias Gysin 7. Manuel Schneider 8. Ladia Vondrasek 9. Wieland Schmid 10. Mark Love 11. David Allgöwer 12. Lucas Quintillan 13. Tim Ginz 14. Christof Liennert 15. Benji McGuiness 16. Tobias Bertschi 17. Kai McArthy 18. Eugene Carr 19. Greg Allen 20. Raphi Gamboni 21. Fabrice Jourdain 22. Andy Kendall 19.09.09 / 1st Team RC La Chaux-de-Fonds - RFC Basel 6:31 3 wins from 3. The good start to the season continued with another bonus point win in La Chaux de Fonds. 31-9 was quite a comfortable score, but La CdF pushed us close well into the second half, before we really took control of the game. Luki had to drop down to the bench due to an aching knee ligament. Last years center partnership of Tim and David was restored, moving Christof out to join Fabrice on wing. Tobi started his first game of the season at hooker, due to Reto and Bruno both being missing. The first outing of the new strip proved a great success. Grunts and groans could be heard from the changing room, as the tight fitting style, was stretched to its elastic limit (in some cases). But on the pitch the advantage was clear. On more than one occasion an opponent was left grasping in thin air, when poor tackle technique left them trying to grab the shirt. The backs scored all the tries with Tim G., Christof L.(2), Fabrice and Wieland going over, but as usual the forward effort gave them a platform to run in the tries. Playing up the fill in the first, the aim was to pressurize La CdF, in their first competitive game of the season. This idea bore fruit, when after 5 minutes, Wieland got quick ball from a ruck and snuck down the blind side. He fed the supporting Ladi, who drew the full back and put Christof in for his first try. The touchline conversion attempt looked good from behind the kicker, but was waved away by the dodgy touch judge, however, the referee overruled and gave the score for a 7-0 lead. However, we allowed La CdF back in to the match by giving a way a series of penalties, one of which was converted to bring the score back to 7-3. A long clearance kick from Mark was chased by Tim G, and led to the pressurized full back throwing the ball into touch on the 22 (which could have been a penalty). A catch and drive took the ball to 10m out, when Wieland shipped the ball out the backs. Mark put Tim through a gap and, who rounded the full back, to score. On 30 minutes Manuel was given a team yellow card on the half hour for repeated technical offences. This resulted from the massive pressure that La CdF were continually putting on in the contact area. La CdF subsequently got their first sustained bout of pressure in our 22. But, despite having 14 men the defence looked unflustered and controlled. The pressure eventually forced a knock on and the lines were cleared to touch just outside the 22. The resulting line out was taken by Stevie and Wieland executed a perfect c**t punt from our 22. The ball dribbled agonisingly into touch in the opposition 22, with Christof bearing down on it. The half time whistle sounded with a 12-3 lead, that would undoubtedly been more was it not for La CdF’s aggressive, competitive work at the breakdown. La CdF upped the intensity and some of the darker arts of rugby crept into their play, to try and get back into the game. At one tackle, Tim was kicked in the head, which started a minor scuffle. Shortly after, another altercation led to Stevie being harshly sin binned and the resulting penalty was converted for 12-6 But despite being down to 14 again, we were still in overall control and managed to work good field position. David joined a scrum as an emergency flanker. The solid set piece allowed Ladi to attack and draw the flanker, feeding the overlapping Wieland, who ran in from the 22. 17-6. 10 minutes later as Stevie was ready to return, Ladi was also yellow carded for suggesting that the referee control La CdF’s forwards, who were diving over and killing our ball. The penalty was converted to bring them back to 17-9. But Stevie’s fired up pep talk galvanized the forwards and they really took a grip of the game from that point. We started to look really comfortable on our own ball and really harassed them in defence. Tim G. fielded a loose kick on our own 10 meter line, shrugged off a two man tackle and took off across the pitch. He fed Christof who sped down the line, beating his man, took the full back on the outside and went over the line for the try. Benji scored the conversion. 10 minutes later, with La CdF back again in their 22, Tim charged down and recovered a clearance kick. Quick ball found Ladi who fed Fabrice, who still had work to do to beat his man for the score. Benji slotted again to finish the scoring at 31-9. The scoreline was actually close for a long time and we were made to work for the victory by a hard working La CdF side. Single match points go to both Stevie and Danny, whose collective aggression in the second half helped us really take control of the match. Tim gets 2 point on his return to center as he was involved in most things that were good and because he actually passed the ball to Christof during his second try. Christof gets the 3 points for his two tries and a great performance on the wing. However, he also gets a minus point for a villainous action. In scoring his second try he blew off a simple draw and pass to the supporting Tim and decided to take on the full back himself. Fortunately he scored otherwise more minus points would have been awarded. Still lots of room for improvement, but still a good and ultimately comfortable win. We can now look forward to Avusy on Saturday, with both unbeated starts on the line. 1. Thimon Furst 2. Tobias Bertschi 3. Danny Wyss 4. Stevie Lazarus 5. Ian Carvell 6. Richard Marsden 7. Manuel Schneider 8. Ladi Vondrasek 9. Wieland Schmid 10. Mark Love 11. Christof Liennert 12. David Allgöwer 13. Tim Ginz 14. Fabrice Jourdain 15. Benji McGuiness 16. Kai McArthy 17. Henrik Haerden 18. Greg Allen 19. Morgan Cooney 20. Lucas Quintillan 21. Andy Kendall 19.09.09 / Future Team RC Solothurn - Basel FT 15:12 no report 16.09.09 / Future Team Die Saison 2009/2010 hat begonnen… Man sollte sich immer hinterfragen und versuchen, das Geleistete in Frage zu stellen. Seit der letzten Saison sind die Ansprüche an das Future Team Basel aus diversen Gründen stetig gewachsen. Dabei geht vergessen, dass es sich um ein Team handelt, welches wieder bei Null anfängt. Die Spieler müssen sich finden, das Spiel erlernen, Ängste überwinden und Neues erforschen. Wir tasten uns langsam an uns heran, die Spieler lernen den Coach, der Coach lernt die Spieler kennen. Ein erneutes Aufeinadertreffen von Charakteren, auch in diesem Jahr junge Menschen mit Ansprüchen, aber auch mit Ecken und Kanten, und dies mit einem Coach, der auch die eine Ecke und Kante besitzt… Das erste Spiel gegen OC Monthey hatte seine eigenen Regeln und dient als Beispiel, wie man es nicht machen sollte. Im Gegenzug stehen ein toller Fernsehbericht über die erste Mannschaft und den Club sowie ein Sieg der ersten Mannschaft gegen Albaladejo Lausanne gegenüber. Das reicht an dieser Stelle. Das zweite Spiel gegen GC Zürich II lässt erahnen, was in diesem neuen Team steckt. Da stehen sieben Spieler auf dem Platz, die das erste oder nun das zweite Spiel ihres Lebens bestreiten und sie halten sich wacker, gehen in Führung und stolpern erst in der letzten Minute über ihre Unerfahrenheit und Disziplinlosigkeit. Ist es ihnen übel zu nehmen? Nein, denn es ist toll zu spüren, wie ein neuer „Teamgeist“ entsteht, ein Gefüge, das vielleicht noch stärker sein könnte als in der letzten Saison. Lassen wir den jungen Wilden die Zeit, die es braucht, und sie werden diese Geduld auf den Rappen zurückbezahlen. 13.09.09 / Future Team Grasshopper Club II - Basel FT 18:8 no report 12.09.09 / 1st Team RFC Basel - RC Fribourg 13:9 The 1st team continued their winning ways with a closely fought 13-9 victory over an ever improving Fribourg side. Having lost to Fribourg 3 times last year, notably a 14-13 reverse in the play-offs in June, this was a piece of sweet revenge. A settled side is always a blessing and only two enforced changes were made from the previous weeks win in Alba. Bruno came in for the injured Reto and Ian Carvell replaced the working Matthias. 13-3 up at half time, The story of the game would be dominated by the set piece. Fribourgs smaller but well drilled scrum constantly caused Ladi to be picking up at the base of the scrum whilst going backwards and even managed to get two against the head. But this was countered by the Basel Lineout. Stevie and Manuel were all over their lineout. Stevie particularly took three of their lineouts in a row. To the point that given a penalty, they took a scrum rather than kick to touch, so nervous were they on their own throw. The breakdown proved to be a contentious area for the referee, with both teams pushing hard to keep/gain possession. This resulted in a very stop start game with many penalties on both sides. Benji converted two such penalties, to one from Fribourg to lead 6-3. On 25 minutes, another was put put into the 22 and a catch and drive took the maul to the 5 meter line where it appeared to have been checked. David had left his blind side wing position to join in the backs attack. His opposite number tracked him, leaving the blind side of the maul completely free. Josh noticed and prompted Ladi, who ran unopposed from the base of the maul and over the line for a try, which was converted by Benji. Half time came round with a 13-3 lead. The second half continued in much the same vane, though the Fribourg backs were looking more and more dangerous. They regularly overloaded the midfield and made good breaks. But the cover defence of the back row, Josh and the back 3 never missed a beat and every break was halted before they got anywhere near the 22. Toby, Kai and Henrik came on for the Bruno, Ian and Manuel to bring on some fresh legs. Fribourg managed to convert 2 penaties to bring the score to 13-9 for a nail biting finale, but the defence held firm for the victory. Thanks and apologies go to the guys who were there but did not get on the pitch, Greg, Julien, Morgan, Fabrice and Raphi. Man of the match points go to Richard Marsden 1 point and Manual Schneider 2 points, who both got through a massive amount of work to ensure we retained and gained possession and the 3 points go to Stevie for his efforts in the line out particularly and strong running in the loose. No villains could be awarded for the match as the effort put in by all gained the victory. However, Andy White gets a minus point as the new team kit has not arrived yet. La Chaux de Fonds await our arrival on Saturday. 1 Danny Wyss 2 Thimon Fürst 3 Bruno Baltes 4 Ian Carvell 5 Stevie Lazarus 6 Richard Marsden 7 Manuel Schneider 8 Ladia Vondrasek 9 Josh Ray 10 Mark Love 11 Tim Ginz 12 Lucas Quintillan 13 Christof Liennert 14 David Allgöwer 15 Benji McGuiness 16 Tobias Bertschi 17 Kai McArrthy 18 Henrik Haerden 19 Greg Allen 20 Fabrice Jourdain 21 Julien Krumrey 22 Morgan Cooney 05.09.09 / Future Team OC Monthey - RFC Basel FT 25 : 7 no report 05.09.09 / 1st Team RC Albaladéjo-RFC Basel 7:35 Great start to the season. A bonus point away win, sets us up perfectly for the grudge match against Fribourg next week. A 35-7 scoreline reflected the dominance we had all over the park. The first half passed by with us constantly in the Alba half. Only twice did Alba manage to get into our half, and never into our 22. They were under severe pressure and resorted to foul play to try and get hold of the ball. But the referee was always vigilant and repeatedly penalised their indiscretions. Benji narrowly missed a penalty attempt at the posts. Despite the pressure, the Alba defence was resolute and it took almost 15 minutes to register a score. A penalty was taken quickly by Josh and spun to Ladi who found a gap and went through to score. A text book team try followed 5 minutes later. A catch and drive in the 22, was then spun the full width of the pitch to Tim Ginz who went round his opposite number and the full back and managed to get under the posts. Benji converted for a 12 nil lead. Tim followed up with his second try when the ball again was spun into midfield. This time the Alba defence managed to tackle, but the support was on hand, and quick ball found Tim down the blind side, who powered through 2 defenders to score. Ladi scored his second with a trade mark, pick and go from a penalty, resulting in a 22-0 half time lead. A more than satisfactory first half. The lineout was dominant. Stevie and Matthias were comfortable on our own ball and often took Alba throws. The scrum was solid, so the backs never struggled for ball. Luki and Christoph both made breaks, and the support was there as needed. All in all a good team performance. Alba came out and started to exert some pressure in the second half. They managed to get some field position, but the defence held firm and kept them out of our 22. However, against the slope and a stiffening wind, we struggled to get any useable field position. Alba were getting steadily more and more ball in our half. A penalty for a late hit finally got them in our 22. Alba then spent 5 minutes camped on our line. The tackling was always solid and Alba were held quite comfortably. But 4 times in a row we would defend Alba’s the line through several phases and then give away an unnecessary penalty to allow them to keep the pressure on. Eventually their attack knocked on and the pressure was relieved. At some point Josh ended up chasing a bobbling, rolling ball backwards, whilst being under pressure from his opposite number. Having recovered the ball, his attempted clearance was charged down and recovered, for them to score under the posts. Neither side managed much time in the 22 after that. Benji stroked a long range penalty to keep the scoreboard ticking over. Confusion from another penalty 5m out under the post, resulted in Josh tapping to himself and kicking a drop goal for another 3 points. Finally Ladi crossed the line for his third try following a supreme forwards effort. Lineout on the 15, followed by a perfectly controlled driving maul, resulted in the score. Benji having found his kicking boots, converted from wide out directly into the wind to finish the game with the 35-7. The second half did not match up to the first, with some scrappy play and some unnecessary penalties. But Alba, never looked like having the ability to break our defence down. This year we will award points to the men of the match and create a league table. In addition there will be minus points for villainous actions. 1 point goes to Luki for a great comeback match after his year wallowing in the Future Team. 2 points goes to Tim for his 2 tries, neither were gifts and needed some work to be scored. 3 points has then to go to Ladi for his trio of tries and his overall control of the game. Mention here now goes to Reto, who announced after the match that he was carrying an injury but did not want to come off (unlike that pussy Matthias “The Blister”Gysin) even though we had 5 subs on the bench itching for a game. So one could say it was heroic and deserved of a match point, but I think its villainous and Reto gets awarded -1. Josh is lucky to get away with only -1, following that drop goal. And finally -1’s (as well as a finger of Jack Daniels) also go to Greg and Fabrice for not wearing the team polo shirts on match day. Fabrice you can blame your mum all day for not doing the washing, but you can’t blame her for the white trousers. Right back to the serious stuff. A good win to start the season, but it only gets harder from now on. Fribourg are a much more serious opposition, so let’s get our minds now focussed on their arrival on Saturday. 1 Danny Wyss 2 Thimon Fürst 3 Reto Maurer 4 Matthias Gysin 5 Stevie Lazarus 6 Richard Marsden 7 Manuel Schneider 8 Ladia Vondrasek 9 Josh Ray 10 Mark Love 11 Tim Ginz 12 Lucas Quintillan 13 Christof Liennert 14 David Allgöwer 15 Benji McGuiness 16 Tobias Bertschi 17 Kai McArrthy 18 Henrik Haerden 19 Greg Allen 20 Fabrice Jourdain 21 Julien Krumrey 22 Morgan Cooney 27.06.09 / Birds birds On Saturday the Birds travelled down to Yverdon for the last 7's tournament of the season. Eleven Birds and the interim Coach for the day - Fiona - arrived a little late due to transport problems - too many bums for the numbers of seats in the cars. Luckily our very kind Jasmine opted to take the train. Unfortunately, she arrived much later than expected as her train hit a cow just outside Delemont but she did make it in time for second game. The girls got changed in super quick time, well quick for a bunch of girls, and warmed up ready for the first game of the day against Cern. After winning a game in St Gallen the girls, and I, were quietly hopeful that they could have a repeat performance. And they did!!! We beat Cern 24-10. The girls came off the pitch with huge smiling faces and a bit of belief for the rest of the day. Unfortunately the winning streak was not to continue as we fell apart against Zurich - I do not remember the final score and I don't want to; suffice to say it was many, many tries to Nil. Coach Fi went berserk for about 10 minutes and sent them off to think about rugby. Whether they did or not is anyone's guess. Our next game of the day was against Bern and whilst Bern were playing quite well I truly thought we could beat them. Our starting team done well and scored a try and held them off for quite a long time. However, in the second half it all fell to bits again. Someone must have coated the ball in oil; we seemed to drop it every time we got a hold of it (which wasn't that often I have to say). Crossing, holding on to the ball, tackling a player without the ball, high tackles (I don't know how that is possible since we are all under 5' 3"!!), lying over the ruck, offside……we done it all. The ref must have been sick of blowing his whistle by the end of the game!! Had we beaten Bern (as we should have if we had played as well as we did in the first half) we would have been playing for 1st or 2nd position in the tournament!!! As it was we ended up playing for 5th or 6th position. Another pep talk from Coach Fi - which simply repeated everything I had been saying since we got there that morning; first tackles, support play and use the whole sodding pitch!!!! Quite frankly I was beginning to bore myself. We played Nyon in the last game of the day and I couldn't quite believe my eyes. Was that a tackle??? And another, and another, and another???? In our earlier games we couldn't tackle worth a monkey's, in fact I was beginning to think we had never played rugby before. We didn't make one single tackle against Zurich in 14 minutes of rugby - which is actually quite impressive; for all the wrong reasons granted, but impressive none-the-less!!! But against Nyon they were like tackling machines. Support play was almost perfect. We still only used a 2m wide corridor of the pitch but as Meat Loaf always said "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad". We beat Nyon 36 to 0……and we ended up 5th in the tournament. Our highest ranking to date in any of these 7's days was 8th!!! (There are only 8 teams). I'm extremely proud of every single one of the girls for their performance in that last game of the day. They proved to me that they did understand what I was saying to them (thought I was going to have to invest in a translator at one point)!!! They proved to me that they can tackle, they do know what support play is, they kind of understand some of the rules some of the time, they do understand that you can go forward even though the ball goes backwards!!!! Actually they now understand that the ball MUST go backwards. After such a convincing win I am full of anticipation and expectation for the next round of 7's the first of which will be on the 29th of August. I want to especially thank the 3 players that came down from St Louis Rugby team - Dali, Nini and Sophie. Their contribution to the day was outstanding!!! My outstanding players of the day are: Christina - for running in soooo many tries. You had a wonderful few games and even after that brutal Sandwich Tackle you got back on the pitch and gave 100%. Dali - her tackling was outstanding and her leadership on the pitch is second to none. She doesn't speak a word of English but she got the girls to understand what she wanted from them anyway. Pinki - you had a few beautiful drop kick conversions. I want to thank Captain Eleanor - she done a brilliant job and I would certainly select her as captain again. All of you girls should be very proud of yourselves; in the last 12 months you have came on leaps and bounds and I truly hope that you continue to improve as you have done. It is time that Basel Birds were Champions again!!! 21.06.09 / Others Bishops Cup 10's. Overall ranking Basel. Men 5th/16 (best of Swiss), Birds 7th/8 Bishops Cup 10's Tournament St. Gallen 13.06.09 / Future Team Basel FT - Grasshoppers Club Sektion Rugby II 38 : 10 no report 06.06.09 / 1st Team RC Fribourg - RFC Basel 14:13 Sadly, we crashed out of the play offs in the first round with a very narrow 14-13 defeat away to Fribourg. 6 weeks earlier we had been been comfortably by Fribourg. But this time we outscored them with 2 tries to one. We just handed them the game with poor discipline. The penalty count was vastly in their favour and cannot be blamed on the referee. Their only try came as a result of three successive penalties. But at least we are starting to play the level of rugby we need to return to where we want to be. For the first time this year, we took less than 22 players, with 10 players either missing or injured. The reorganised team saw Reto up in the front row, due to Thim, Ian and Bruno all missing the game. Kai joined the returning Ian in the second row. Thanks go to Ho and Matt who stepped up to be front row replacements. Richard also returned to the back row after exams. The backs were only slightly more settled with Wieland moving into the 9 slot, replacing Paris wedding bound Liam and Fabrice replacing the injured Tibor on the wing. But we welcomed back Tim at center. Taking the kickoff, we took the ball through several phases back into the Fribourg 22. A great break from Fabrice nearly resulted in a try, but he was bundled into touch. Fribourg managed to take their lineout and clear to the 22. But the pressure was reapplied and again after several great attacking phases from the forwards, the Fribourg defence was ragged and Tim broke through 2 tackles to score in the corner. Benji narrowly missed the conversion. Fribourg replied with a penalty, before Ladi who was always sharp drove over from a quickly taken penalty. It resulted from more pressure on the Fribourg line which eventually forced their well organised defence into giving away an offside penalty 5 meters out. Benji missed the conversion again from close to the touchline. Fribourg kicked into gear then with the help of our indiscipline, with an unconverted try of their own. Our defence was organised and controlled and never really looked like conceding much ground as we had 6 weeks ago, but we played too much on the edge and gave penalties away regularly. Eventually Fribourg took one quick penalty in the 22 and after several phases managed to force their way over our line. Half time 10-8 up after playing up the hill. The second half was largely uneventful, with both teams cancelling each other out. Towards the end of the game, Fribourg finally converted one of their several penalty attempts to take an 11-8 lead. Constant pressure in the Fribourg half, led to a Penalty close to the touch line. Andy, who had replaced the injured Benji, converted the attempt to give us a 13-11 lead with less than two minutes to go. A knock on at the restart resulted in a scrum to Fribourg. The referee pinged us for deliberate wheeling, which appeared a little harsh. The Fribourg kicker, who had been woeful all day, actually converted his hardest kick, which was accompanied by the referees final whistle and the rapturous Fribourg support. Man of the match went to Danny Wyss who again worked tirelessly in the engine room and continued his excellent season, where he is now contributing massively in defence and attack. This match showed us many things. That we are getting closer to where we want to be, but also that there are many things that we still need to improve. Specifics will come out in summer training. So enjoy a few weeks off and we will get back to training in July. 1. Danny Wyss 2. Tobias Bertschi 3. Reto Maurer 4. Ian Carvell 5. Kai McArthy 6. Richard Marsden 7. Matthias Gysin 8. Ladi Vondrasek 9. Wieland Schmidt 10. Mark Love 11. Olly Mueller 12. David Allgöwer 13. Tim Ginz 14. Fabrice Jourdain 15. Benji McGuiness 16. Ho Purena 17. Matt Brenckenridge 18. Raphi Gamboni 19. Henrik Haerden 20. Patrik Moser 21. Andy Kendall 06.06.09 / Future Team RC Luzern - Basel FT 54:18 no report 24.05.09 / Future Team RC Eschen Mauren Lynx - Basel FT 15:47 no report 17.05.09 / Future Team Grasshopper Club Rugby Sektion 2 - Basel FT 50:0 no report 16.05.09 / 1st Team RFC Basel - RC La Chaux-de-Fonds 48:3 Basel scored 7 Tries through Mark Love and Tim Fürst, all of which were converted by Ian McAtee, who also found time to drop a goal. nb, some of that might have been slightly made up. Basel went into the game against La Chaux-de-Fonds looking to avenge a 15-5 defeat two weeks previously. Basel were rewarded within the opening three minutes when great work by the forwards created space and released Tibor down the right wing and across the line, putting down the ball, is his usual behind the back slide movement which had hearts racing on the touch line... Benji stepped up for the kick but it went just wide, 5-0 Basel. After the kick off La Chaux-de-Fonds managed to recover the ball and after some great defense, Basel unfortunately gave away a penalty for crossing under the posts on the 22. The kick for goal was good, 5-3 and La Chaux-de-Fonds were back in it. The game went back and forward for a while after that with good attacking and defending on both sides. But the break through came as a result of a penalty taken quickly by Liam, La Chaux-de-Fonds were judged not back 10, Benji put foot to ball and Basel are back on the attack. Shortly after, a Ladi break, Stevie supporting and a pop-pass out to number nine Liam grow about 3 feet in height as he walks over the La Chaux-de-Fonds number eight. Having done this he still has presence of mind to pass the ball wide to David who scored his third try in two games. Benji adds the two, 12-3 Basel and La Chaux-de-Fonds are left looking at their number eight wondering how little Liam could have walked over him. Penalties against both for hands in the ruck. The Basel penalty is sent up to the half way line by Benji. Basel line-out is well taken with the ball coming out quickly to the backs, David sees a gap behind the La Chaux-de-Fonds defense and puts in a lovely little chip ahead that is only just brought in and defended. The kick back down into the Basel half is picked up by Benji who effortlessly went past 4 tackles before an inside pass to Ladi and then out to Tibor was judged forward stopped the move. The La Chaux-de-Fonds line-out was for most of the afternoon being thrown not straight. After one resulting scrum, the ball came off the back of the pack to Liam who went on a darting little run, with no support, but it seemed he didn’t need it as he crossed the line. Benji added the two 19-3 Basel. Minutes later, another quickly taken Penalty sees Ladi free, he draws his man and passes out to Morgan who crosses the line, Benji, again adds the two, 26-3 Basel and the bonus point is secure before halftime. Just before the interval David broke free down the left wing only to be brought back by the referee who “saw” him step into touch. The Basel bench and the touch judge were left wondering what line the ref was looking at... The last act of the half went to Reto, who was given the ball 5 meters out with no-one to beat. White line fever got the better of him and whilst trying to figure out if to do the front or back flip as celebration dropped the ball. Half time, Basel 26 La Chaux-de-Fonds 3 The second half started with a bit from both teams until a great tackle from Eugene was deemed dangerous, penalty La Chaux-de-Fonds. The resulting throw, not straight and Basel clear back down field. Basel change – Mike Bartlett for Eugene Carr. Using a good switch move the backs break clear but are held up over the line, scrum 5... Again, great ball off the back of the scrum and a long pass out wide is deemed forward after actually going backwards but bouncing forward. After a scrappy La Chaux-de-Fonds scrum the ball goes out wide, Mike, who has only just come on, comes in with a tackle that is deemed dangerous by none but the referee and sees a straight red card. Basel are now down to 14 men and regroup for the penalty that sees them back in their own half. Yet another La Chaux-de-Fonds line-out that is not straight sees a great 3 – 4 phases of rugby by Basel that ends with David crossing the line for his second, wait, not in control of the ball when it was put down. Basel change – Fabrice Jourdain for David Allgöwer Basel’s next try came yet again from the backs. A great set of quick hands leaves Tibor with just his man to beat, 31-3 Basel after Benji just misses from out wide with the kick. Basel is still one man down in the scum; Fabrice having come on into the center fills the gap as flanker. Tibor looks for his hatrick after a quick break off the back of the scrum by Liam but the pass goes nowhere near him. Basel change – Sam Baumann for Bruno Baltes Basel change – Charlie Hui for Benji McGuiness (Charlie to the wing and Gilbert drops back to full back) Good Basel pressure, still with only 14 men leads to Liam crossing the whitewash for the second time 36-3 and because Benji is now off, Liam takes responsibility for the two points with a cheeky drop kick 38-3 Basel. Basel change – Wieland Schmidt for Olly Mueller. Yet again, a break off the back of the scrum and quick hands from Liam to Morgan and out to Tibor puts the big winger over for his hatrick. The missed drop goal from Liam makes it 43-3 Basel. Final act of the match goes to Charlie, a recovered ball by the backs makes its way out and Charlie scores his first Basel try in the corner. Liam misses with the drop goal, final score 48-3 Basel In summary the forwards were immense all afternoon with great runs, support and balls coming off the back of rucks and scrums. Danny Wyss was named man of the match after an exceptional performance stealing ball after ball in rucks and mauls. Tobias Bertschi also deserves mention for an outstanding game. The backs took all the points based on fantastic work by the forwards. All in all a great win for Basel Basel 1st XV 1 Danny Wyss 2 Tobias Bertschi 3 Bruno Baltes 4 Reto Maurer 5 Eugene Carr 6 Steven Lazarus 7 Kai McArthy 8 Ladi Vondrasek 9 Liam Cox 10 Morgan Cooney 11 Tibor Nemeth 12 David Allgöwer 13 Olly Mueller 14 Gilbert Santini 15 Benji McGuiness 16 Sam Baumann 17 Ian Carvell 18 Mike Bartlett 19 Fabrice Jourdain 20 Wieland Schmid 21 Charlie Hui 22 Andy Kendall 09.05.09 / Future Team Baar Panthers - Basel Future Team 20:34 09.05.09 / 1st Team RFC Basel - RC Neuchâtel 46:25 Harry Potter and the Magical Destruction of Neuchatel By J.K. Rowling A near-capacity* crowd were treated to RFC Basel’s best performance of the season. Coach Andy “Silver Fox” Kendall had picked a side based on fitness, apart from the pivotal Scrum Half position, where he selected himself in the absence of Liam “Mister” Cox. Basel started well from Neuchatel’s kick-off, with Ladi catching the kick and instantly going on the attack. A second phase also looked promising, before the ball was lost, and the Neuchatel backs made a break. Despite fumbling the ball (backwards), a try was scored under the Basel Posts. A simple conversion meant that Neuchatel lead 7-0 after just 90 seconds. This was the first time this half season that Basel had not scored first. However, Basel fought back quickly, despite Andy kicking Tibor in the head. Basel could have scored with Manfred chasing and collecting a box kick from the Silver Fox. Manfred took two tackles and did well to put the ball down over the line; but the Referee harshly penalised Manfred for holding on in the tackle (He wasn’t held on the ground) prior to getting back to his feet to cross over the line. Manfred left the field soon after with a knee injury, being replaced by Gilbert. Basel equalised the scores when Ladi made a great break, with a powerful run through several attempted tackles that left a number of Neuchatel players on their arses with red faces. Benji “The Boot” calmly slotted the extra points. Basel were buoyed by the score and kept the pressure on. The forwards made a number of powerful breaks, with strong running from Stevie, Reto, Mathias and Thimon as well as Ladi (of course!) Basel took the lead with a great planned move in the backs, with a switch between Mark “Safe Hands” Love and David, who took a great angle and ran through to score his first try for Basel by the posts. Benji stepped up to add another 2 points. 14-7. All the good work was soon undone, with Neuchatel’s backs again finding a big gap in the Basel defensive line and scoring a converted try under the posts. 14-14. This began a disappointing few minutes for Basel, who were playing well in attack, linking phases together well and involving both forwards and backs to vary the attacking style. But a few fisticuffs lead to Thimon “Ricky Hatton” Wurst taking 3 punches to the head. He took the first two hits quite well, but the third punch to the temple put him straight down to the ground. Both Tim and his assailant (no. 8?) were shown a yellow card, but it was felt that the Neuchatel aggressor was very lucky not to see red. The 10 minute rest for Thimon probably helped him clear his head. Basel continued to press, and Ladi scored his second try with yet another swashbuckling run. Benji, with the help of Patrick “Tentative Raised Flag” Moser added the extras. The kick looked good to me as I was stood by the ref, but the ball was so high above the posts it was difficult to tell. Nevertheless, the extra points were awarded, and Basel had a 21-14 lead with 10 minutes to half-time. Continued good play from the Basel forwards set a great platform for the backs to attack. Even Andy’s passes were going to hand! David scored his second try of the match with a strong burst through the 22 to cross the line with a tackler hanging off him, and Juan was kept busy with the kicking tee for Benji to once again kick the conversion. A 4-Try bonus point for Basel before the half time whistle. Ian Masher McAtee was replaced by Juanita just before half-time, due to an injured left tit (I emphasise it was not his shoulder!). Reto was promoted into the front row. Basel’s defence remained firm as Neuchatel attempted to get back into the match. Half time, and 28-14 to Basel. Great stuff! Basel started the second half in not-so-convincing fashion, with a number of one-on-one tackles allowing Neuchatel to break over the gain line and get close to our line. Then our defensive line was not as well organised as it could have been, allowing the Neuchatel hooker to run in for a try almost unopposed. The conversion was missed, and Basel led 28-19. Some respite for Basel came from a great penalty from Benji from distance, and Basel went back on the front foot with Ladi completing his well deserved hat-trick with a good run supporting the backs out on the wing. He finished with a dive into the corner, as if to say to Benji- try kicking that conversion! And he did, making the art of goal kicking look so easy! 38-19. Neuchatel came forward again, and Andy (of all people) was penalised for handling on the floor in the ruck. Right in front of the referee. A couple more phases and another missed tackle in the backs gave Neuchatel a bonus-point try to the right of the posts. The try was converted, closing the gap to 38-26. With 20 minutes to go, and Huey “The Horse” entered the fray, replacing Stevie who was badly injured with a small blister on his ankle. Huey immediately made his mark with a big (if slightly late!) tackle... Basel were not quite finished. By this point, Raphi was still running all over the pitch, making his tackles and supporting the attacking play well. The victory was sealed with a great team try which began with a great steal by Danny, the ball taken up several phases by the forwards, with Raphi shipping the ball to Mark, who delicately fumbled the ball to Tibor who rounded the cover defence and put the ball down behind the post. A simple conversion for Benji gave Basel a 45-26 lead. Benji ended the match with a 100% kicking record. With 10 minutes to go, Danny and a Neuchatel forward were given yellow cards for something very innocuous off the ball- I’ve no idea why, but the Neuchatel guy wasn’t exactly happy about it. Both teams continued to press but there were no further scores before the referee drew the spectacle to a close with the final whistle. A great game for the spectators then, and a really good team performance after recent disappointments. There were a lot of positives to be taken from the game. We should take a lot of confidence into the next match, where, if we continue to play in this way, we should exact revenge on La Chaux de Fonds. * About 50 people Squad 1. Danny Wyss 2. Thimon Fürst (C) 3. Ian McAtee 4. Reto Maurer 5. Stevie Lazarus 6. Mathias Gysin 7. Raphi Gamboni 8. Ladi Vondrasek 9. Andy Kendall 10. Mark Love 11. Tibor Nemeth 12. David Allgöwer 13. Ollie Muller 14. Manfred Bühlmann 15. Benji McGuinness 16. Tobias Bertschi 17. Kai McCarthy 18. Juan Blasco 19. Patrick Moser 20. Huey Carr 21. Gilbert Santini 22. Morgan Cooney Scorers: Tries: Ladi (3), David (2), Tibor Conversions: Benji (6) Penalites: Benji 02.05.09 / Future Team RC Lugano - Basel FT 12:22 no report 02.05.09 / 1st Team RC La Chaux-de-Fonds - RFC Basel 15:5 no report 25.04.09 / 1st Team RC Fribourg - RFC Basel 27:7 no report 25.04.09 / Future Team Basel FT - RC St. Gallen 11:15 18.04.09 / 1st Team RFC Basel - RC Genève P.L.O. 14:39 “The first tackle” was one of the themes of the pre-match build up. And what a tackle it turned out to be. Josh lands a nice hanging kick off just outside the 22. The receiver takes the ball comfortably and looks up, just as Tibor and Matthias smash into him at full pace and dislodge the ball for a knock on. There is no better start to a game of rugby. Geneva arrived in Basel on the back of 11 wins from 11 games in the A league and are 19 points clear at the top. In this time they have conceded only 4 tries. The last time that Geneva lost a match was here in June last year we produced a much deserved 16-13 victory. But, the fact that since then they had gone from strength to strength, while we had descended to the lower reaches of the B league presented many worries amongst the hope of a repeat of that glorious day. Only 5 players from that match in June started this game, showing the extent of the rebuilding that has been progressing all year. Thanks go to Josh, who took time out from studying to help out at flyhalf. The front row remained the same after demolishing Alba the previous week. While the back row returned “en masse”, after injury/suspension. Marc stepped in at full back. We opened up and executed a very good example of 10 man rugby of the kind we have been subjected to for years. Our possession was comfortably retained in contact and Josh and Liam kicked with precision to keep Geneva tied in their half. The backs attacks were efficient but could not find a way through the excellent Geneva back line. The pressure finally told, when following a tackle the ball spilled out of the side of the ruck and Richard pounced. Regaining his feet on the 22, he drove toward the line, but was held up just short. His offload went to ground, but backwards, where it was scooped up by Tim, who drove over the line for the thoroughly deserved opening score. Marc converted for a 7-0 lead. Geneva finally entered our 22 following a mid field penalty for offside. From the line out, they executed a perfect rolling maul that we could not manage to pull down and went over in the corner. The conversion was missed but they followed it up with 3 points from another penalty for offside. It was telling that Geneva actually went for the posts with a long range penalty rather than push the ball to the corner(and continued in this vane the whole day). They were clearly rattled. Marc attempted 3 long range penalties during the opening half, but despite decent strikes, pushed the ball either side of the uprights. David received 10 minutes in the bin just before half time for checking the Geneva full back after he chipped over. The resultant line defence was a massive improvement on previous weeks. Three times Geneva had the ball over the line, but the tacklers held on and stayed on their feet and the resulting maul was driven back into play. The half ended there at 7-8 with Basel dominant in many aspects. The first 8 minutes of the second half with 14 players proved decisive. Geneva scored 2 tries from broken play produced when their back line managed to pierce our defence. All the game Stevie(subsequently Richard) and Henrik had worked overtime to help the backline with cover. But the extra man finally told. The breaks were held up by the cover defence but the follow up play was top class and produced two well taken converted tries. The scrum had been solid all day. Tim hooked one against the head but both scrums seemed to accept parity. Liam however was all over the 8 and 9 and stole the ball more than once. Richard (who had replaced Stevie at 8 due to a dead leg) picked at the base of one scrum and fed Liam who accelerated off on a 40 meter run up the blind side. A dummy kick held back the tackler for a second, when he heard the Richard who was powering up in support screaming “Mr. Cox” “Mr. Cox”. The teacher offloaded out of the tackle to his student who crossed the line for a crowd pleasing score, to bring us back into the game. Marc again converted. Sadly, with 15 minutes to go Geneva scored a further converted try and a couple of penalties to take them three scores away and ran out deserved winners on the day. However they were a team that were relieved having survived a scare against such lowly opposition. The Basel team walked off with pride having battled the whole game and were still in the match toward the end. The Geneva pack struggled with our defensive organisation, strong running and great support and were second place in most departments. Their backs however, were a different story with pace and power every where and had an significant edge on our backline, despite their hard work in defence. Man of the match had many candidates this week. Henrik got through a massive amount of work in defence as usual; Josh and Liam controlled the game between them throughout and worked together seamlessly despite never even having trained together: But the award went to Matthias in only his second game at blind side, after a great game tackling, supporting and running with the ball. Villain of the match goes to “Mr. Cox”. After his successful fake kick during Richards try, attempted said action again, but this time forgot to catch the ball, resulting in a knock on .Tut, tut, tut. Danny Wyss Thimon Fürst Ian McAtee Reto Maurer Richard Marsden Matthias Gysin Henrik Haerden Stevie Lazarus Liam Cox Josh Ray Tibor Nemeth David Allgöwer Christof Inhelder Andy White Marc Love Tobias Bertschi Juan Blasco Ian Carvell Kai McArthy Raphi Gamboni Olly Müller Charlie Hui 18.04.09 / Future Team Basel FT - RC Ticino 45:10 no report 05.04.09 / Future Team Würenlos RC - Basel FT 28:17 (Half Time 21:5) no report 04.04.09 / 1st Team RFC Basel - Albaladéjo Rugby 21:12 And not just according to the Gospel that is Mark Love. Injuries and suspensions meant a completely rejigged team ran out on the the pitch against Alba. Only Reto, Richard and Thimon started against both CERN and Alba. Also a complete new back row line up, with Richard playing at 8 in only his second game for the 1st team. Liam was forced to move into scrum half due to Wielands injury, thereby allowing Tim to fulfil his dream of playing at 10. Despite the massive changes in personnel, the pack played some of the best cohesive forward play seen this season. From the opening kick off the ball was taken into contact and recycled instantly to Liam. Richard hit the line at speed and got 5 meters over the gain line and again recycled instantly to be spun out to the backs. This opening set continued throughout the game and regularly provided Liam with quick ball. Only occasionally did the runner get isolated and turnover the ball. Benji struck a nice penalty from 35meters to open the scoring. 3 or 4 penalties were spurned for kicks to the corner and scrums in the opposition 22 because the pack were on top. However then came to nothing with Alba continuous infringement at the breakdown. Alba were first to score a try when from a penalty, poor defence allowed them a pick and drive try. Then amazingly they did it again to go into half time with a 12-3 lead. We were on top in every aspect of the game but losing. The message was simple, tighten up the defence and the tries would come. The scrum was supremely dominant the whole game. Danny and Ian (and subsequently Bruno) had complete control over their opposite numbers, to the point that opposition ball was often won and our ball was certain. One occasion the Alba scrum was going back rapidly, the back row and second row went down and the props were driven over the top of them. It was scary to watch from the sideline and I had to feel sorry for the Alba front row (but not that much. They have deserved a good pummelling after years and years of challenging Law 10). The pack deserved a penalty try from a scrum, their loosehead disengaged from Ian and the entire scrum wheeled round ours even though we were still square to the try line and moving slowly forwards, but went unseen by the ref. The backs struggled with the timing most of the game, which was not surprising with the change in line up. David continued to impress after his move to 12 with solid defence and one good break from a switch. The Alba backs offered little in attack, but defended amazingly well and blunted most of the moves. All the backs tried to find gaps, but their sliding defence and gang tackling was solid. Finally, following some good approach play by the forwards and repeated attacks on the line, Tim found a small gap and went through for the opening try. Benji slotted the conversion and followed up with 2 penalties to bring us back to 15-12. Continuous attack was well defended by Alba till from a scrum Liam fooled everybody by going blind and chipping over the defence rugby league style for Andy to score in the corner. This finally give us some breathing space. Benji missed with a long range penalty so the score stayed at 21-12. In summary apart from some poor defence in the 22 it was a good performance from all and the correct outcome. Only a very good defensive performance from Alba prevented a comfortable bonus point win. Man of the match had several candidates. David Allgower as mentioned before; the entire front row en bloc; Raphi played a great game at 7 competing all round the pitch; but the accolade went to Richard whose constant go forward ball led the team. Danny Wyss Thimon Fürst Ian McAtee Juan Blasco Reto Maurer Kai McArthy Raphi Gamboni Richard Marsden Liam Cox Tim Ginz (Capt.) Tibor Nemeth David Allgower Christof Inhelder Andy White Benji McGuiness Sam Baumann Tobias Bertschi Bruno Baltes Ian Carvell Henrik Haerden Olly Mueller Charlie Hui 21.03.09 / Future Team RC Konstanz 5 - RFC Basel FT 27 Squad of 27 players. 21.03.09 / 1st Team RC CMSG - RFC Basel 30:12 CERN away. First match of the year. Training attendance and performance had been promising. A good turnout resulted in 24 players heading down on the luxury coach to Geneva. A great start had Basel looking like world beaters. Good ball was provided by the forwards on half way. A great break by Tim, was halted on the 22. But as in training he passed off the floor to the supporting David, who released Tibor to drive over line for a great opening try. Benji was very unlucky to miss the conversion from the corner in a high cross wind. The CERN linesman gave it, but the referee waived it away. However the power in CERN’s big pack then took over and managed to disrupt our set piece. In one retreating scrum, Wieland was tripped and turned his ankle, to be replaced at 9 by Juan, who seemed to take his inspiration for the position from Mauro Bergamasco. For the rest of the game both sides struggled for any real consistency. But the CERN pack managed to work field position and their big runners forced their way over the line for their tries. We looked good with the ball in hand but struggled to get quick ball from rucks and mauls. The backs were always dangerous. CERN resorted to a disgusting off the ball body check to try and halt Tim, but our man is made of sterner stuff. Sadly it was so far off the ball to be missed by the referee. The scrum managed to gain some parity and Tim F. took a couple against the head, but the lineout continued to be varied. One attack finally resulted in Liam breaking through the line to score. But CERN were always comfortably ahead on the score board. Some good individual performances stood out. Richard and Ian in the second row battles manfully. Henrik got through his usual amount of tackling and ball stealing. Tim G. broke the line endlessly, but we could not finish off the breaks he made. Man of the match went to Tibor, for a well taken try and battling performance. We have to look forward to the next few weeks. The play off position is still possible, but we need to play much better than this. Lots of work to do in training. See you there. 1 Bruno Baltes 2 Thimon Fürst 3 Reto Maurer 4 Ian Carvell 5 Richard Marsden 6 Matthias Gysin 7 Henrik Haerden 8 Stevie Lazarus 9 Wieland Schmid 10 Liam Cox 11 Tibor Németh 12 David Allgöwer 13 Tim Ginz 14 Fabrice Jourdain 15 Benji McGuiness 16 Sam Baumann 17 Danny Wyss 18 Juan Blasco 19 Eugene Carr 20 Christoph Inhelder 21 Olly Müller 22 Chalie Hui 22.11.08 / Future Team Basel FT - RC Würenlos 0:27 no report 15.11.08 / 1st Team RFC Basel - Lugano Rugby 29:22 Sorry, missed the write up for this. Just about remember that this was a bonus point win, which ended up closer than it should have been. 5 tries scored, all from the backs, but the foundation was made in the forwards as usual. It was amazing that Lugano turned up after trying to have the game cancelled, supposedly because most of its team were away at a wedding. Pressure from the federation forced them to cancel their second team game and play us. Pretty much the full team turned up. Good play from Basel, had us 3 tries up at half time and cruising. 2 tries to Tim (I think), one being a completely individual effort from half way, dodging through half the Lugano team before streaking away to score. The 3rd try of the half was probably the best score seen in Basel for many years. From quick ruck ball, Ian Carvell hit the line at full pace and drove the tackler back 5 meters and the ball was easily secured for the next phase. The opposition were still tracking back to the offside line when the ball was quickly played out to Tim at outside centre. Tim beat his man, drew the cover defence and fed Benji at pace. Benji drew the winger and fed Andy White who touched down in the corner despite the best efforts of the full back. All in all the complete team try of the highest standard. Lugano managed to batter our try line with their very good pack in the second half and managed to score two pick and drive tries. The defence held for many phases, but on both occasions they managed to find small gaps to attack and score. Debutant Mark Love scored two tries in amongst this, both following breaks from Liam to keep the score board ticking over. Don’t remember the full team or the man of the match. Villain of the match. Our Argentinian number 8, who shall remain nameless, broke through the line (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=64635&id=815182994#/photo.php?pid=1494666&id=815182994), but with support aplenty decided on a chip and chase which was easily cleared up by the opposition full back. (This event was actually from the Fribourg match weeks earlier, but I forgot to mention this in that write up, so I am exercising a little artistic license). 15.11.08 / Future Team Basel FT - RC Lucerne 0:34 no report 08.11.08 / 1st Team Albaladéjo Rugby - RFC Basel 25:17 As with almost every game this year, we owe thanks to several people. Andy, Matt and Miles came as injury subs, but Andy started the game due to Fabrice’s late pull out. Miles ended up playing almost an hour, due to Alex’s unlucky knee injury. A huge thanks also goes to the FT who helped out with 4 players. Franz, Manuel, Anthony and Julian. All 4 played very well and showed the strength in depth that the club actually has. Despite this help we started with 3 players carrying injuries that really need resting. With the number of players the team has, this is not good. Many players are away or injured. But if a player can play but chooses not to, then this shows poor commitment to teammates and the club. End of story. The final score is open to debate. 25-17, 28-17 or 30-17. The match sheet was signed at 25-17 in Alba’s favour, so that’s the one we will go with. This is without doubt a new Alba. The scrum half of old, the one with his own gravitational field, is no more. Sadly to be replaced by a guy who can actually run and pass. The old attitude to the game has gone with him resulting in a game that on the whole was hard but clean and enjoyed by both teams. The game started very well, with good defence and ball retension. In the first scrum we pushed them off their ball to take one against the head. So despite having a smaller scrum, great technique from Danny, Thimon and Reto gave a steady stream of quality ball for the backs all day. The offside problem, however, reared its ugly head higher than ever in this game. We gifted Alba field position and points with at least 10 offsides. Alba gained a 10-0 lead through a converted try and penalty despite us playing the better rugby when we had the ball in hand. The reply came from Tim, who with a good backs move, broke the line and powered through 4 tackles to go over the line. Alba slotted another offside penalty, for 13-5. Following more good phase play, the author spotted the blind side winger in the line, so chipped and chased. Only to be outpaced by Thimon, who comfortably won the chase for the ball and strolled under the post to make the conversion a formality. Fortunately this was not turned into a penalty try, so Thimon finally scored his virgin first team try. When the fullback went absent another time, another chip and chase resulted in a try for Juan, which was harshly pulled back for offside. At the other end a 22 drop out was hacked through the defensive line for Alba to score just before half time to go into half time with a 20-13 lead. The story of the first half had been the Basel play. Some of the handling from all 15 players especially the forwards was great to watch. Support was always on hand making the play easy and ensured that on our own ball, we rarely lost possession. Some of the offloads went to ground, but a majority did not. The second half continued on the same vane. Regular penalties broke up good Basel play and gave Alba field position and a couple of penalty conversions stretched their lead. Tim replied again when broke through a tackle and beat the 2 or 3 opposition to score in the corner. In our 22 Alba strung several phases together and eventually passed out of one tackle to go over the line for a converted try to stretch the lead to either 25-17. Repeated attacks on the Alba line in the last few minutes sadly produced no further score. Despite the loss everyone was encouraged by the way we played with pretty much a scratch team. 3 tries each, with only their goal kicker ending up being the difference between the sides. The penalty count seemed to be worse than ever this game. Particulary offside. Pressure is one thing, but we have to cut back on these penalties. The scrum was solid and only lost one against the head due to the ball being kicked back. Lineout was also very good. To the point that Alba stopped competing and started disrupting the lifters which was probably the only thing missed by the ref all day. So man of the match went to Thimon thanks to a good allround performance and his first genuine try closely followed by Tim. 1. Danny Wyss 2. Thimon Fürst 3. Reto Maurer 4. Juan Blasco 5. Kai McCarthy 6. Kike Ladmann 7. Manuel Schneider 8. Franz Isler 9. Anthony Flament 10. Alex Broud 11. Raphi Gamboni 12. Julian Krumrey 13. Tim Ginz (C) 14. Benji McGuiness 15. Andy Kendall 16. Miles Coslett 17. Matt Breckenridge 08.11.08 / Future Team Basel FT - Eschen-Mauren Lynx 50:0 no report 25.10.08 / 1st Team RC Neuchâtel - RFC Basel 18:10 From both a player and spectators point of view, it is always great to see a referee who has the strength of character to introduce hitherto unknown rules and interpretations into a game. It brings that degree of uncertainty and freshness to our beautiful game. It just is not the same when players go on to the pitch knowing which rules they have to follow. For example, we need to remember that when the opposition have a forward in the sin bin, we have to reduce our scrum to seven men, thus negating the 8 on 7 advantage. Also in this situation there should be two flankers in place, and no #8, thus ensuring the ball shoots out of the scrum 7’s style, creating a chaotic scrum half free for all, that was so pleasing to the eye. Anyway after that aside, back to the game itself. Thanks again go to Joerg who stepped in at blind side rather than have us forfeit the game. Miles and Matt, who were prepared to come as injury subs to help out. And Tobias and Fabrice who were playing with injuries. Whoever first penned the quote “football is a game of two halves”, really should have applied it to this game of rugby. Playing up the steep Neuchatel hill in the first half, we limited Neuchatel to two long range penaties in reply to Juan’s effort. Not once did they look like threatening our line. The line defense was good and pressed well. If they did break through the line, the cover defence was always there. In attack we had several clear breaks, that if one had to be really critical should have given us a try bonus point by half time. Liam was stopped on the try line after a mazy run from half way, with the support close but agonizingly not quite close enough. Fabrice was held up over the line on another occasion and Charley was bundled into touch just short of scoring. Eventually Tibor strolled through a huge gap on the 22 and managed to get under the post for a converted try. So despite the usual 7-3 penalty count against us (standing behind the back foot at rucks is no longer considered to be guaranteed onside), a comfortable 10:6 half time lead after playing up the hill had the boys happy. However the second half was a different story. Several scrums were lost either from the opposition hooker being allowed to strike ridiculously early or the scrum wheeling. The lineout dropped to around 50%. Neuchatel raised their game and were comfortably ahead in territory stakes. The pressure finally resulted in a converted try to go in front for the first time on 60 minutes. Hands in the ruck gave them field position and brought about the best defensive effort seen for years. Neuchatel picked and drove at our line for several phases and were aggressively kept out. Then they swung the ball to either side of the park, which was covered by the sliding defence. Eventually the ball was knocked on. But the resultant scrum was lost and the pressure came back on. Again the line defence held out Neuchatel for several phases. But eventually a very well executed blind side rocket caught two backs at guard and 2nd man. And they scored to go 18-10. Despite a huge effort from all in the final 10 (or 22 by the Ref's Watch), no dent could be made in the Neuchatel lead. Man of the match. Thimon had another good game, popping up more and more often in the loose. Tim was tigerish as usual in attack and defence. This week however goes to Stevie who was central in the defence effort which was again the outstanding aspect of the game. The villain had to be the referee’s half time whistle. Another game that should have been won. Someone is in for a good hiding from this team that is so much better than its results have shown this year. Lets make it La Chaux de Fonds. 1 Thimon Fürst 2 Tobias Bertschi 3 Jörg Brude 4 Ian Carvel 5 Stevie Lazarus 6 Henrik Härden 7 Raphi Gamboni 8 Juan Blasco 9 Wieland Schmid 10 Liam Cox 11 Charlie Hui 12 Tibor Németh 13 Tim Ginz (C) 14 Fabrice Jourdain 15 Alex Broux 16 Patrick Moser 18 Matt Breckenridge 19 Miles Coslett 25.10.08 / Future Team Basel FT - Baar Panthers 38:5 no report 18.10.08 / 1st Team RFC Basel - RC Fribourg 17:20 We finally seem to have turned around the year on year habit of being slow starters. Straight from our kick off, pressure was applied and the ball was turned over. With play constantly in the Fribourg half for the first 5 minutes, the pressure finally resulted in a pick and go try for Henrik. The try was under the post, providing Juan with a “gimme” of a conversion. The great start was then cancelled out by 2 consecutive penalties for a high tackle then not retiring 10m. Fribourg pressure on our line resulted in a converted try to draw level. It has to be said, that that the Fribourg passing and running in the backs was excellent. However it was matched by some great defence from Liam, Fabrice and Tim. The 8-3 against penalty count and 2 sin bins told the story of the first half. Both sin bins being caused by underhand provocation. One penalty resulted in a 3 pointer giving a half time 10-7 deficit. A re-energised team opened the second half like the first with good pressure. A penalty took us into the Fribourg 22 and after a couple of phases, Thimon found himself with a 1 on 1 against the winger and showed an amazing turn of speed to touch down in the corner. The winger high tackled in the act of scoring, so a penalty try was awarded. Does this mean the Thimon does not get credited with a try. Unlucky there Tim. The conversion was made again from under the post, giving up a 14-10 deserved lead. Three successive penalties against gave Fribourg a shot at the post to reduce the gap to 14-13. Juan slotted a penalty of our own to restore the 4 point lead. But a further penalty attempt was put narrowly wide. The crowd were amazed when the Fribourg scrum half dived on to the top of a maul and head butted someone’s back. So with only 10 mins to play things looked good, until a penalty took Fribourg into the 22. Good line defence looked to be keeping Fribourg out. A pick and drive was repelled. The ball carrier laid the ball back for the next phase, then the referee’s whistle was heard. Incredulously the referee ran over with hand held high. What! A try. Even Fribourg did not think it was a try, they played on. But as they say, the referee’s decision is final. The conversion was made , 17-20. The tempo was increased taking basel close to the opposition 22. A kickable penalty was spurned as our heroes went for the win. But it was not to be, when the shortly after with what was thought to be a couple of minutes left, the referee’s final whistle blew. Fribourg celebrated as they won a game that they should not have. In summary, defense and attack were both good. Both Fribourg’s tries came from 3 succesive penalties. Cut the penalties. Man of the match – Thimon, for a great try and good work in the loose. Villain of the day has to be the ref. 1 Danny Wyss 2 Thimon Fürst 3 Reto Maurer 4 Ian Carvell 5 Stevie Lazarus 6 Henrik Haerden 7 Kai Macarthy 8 Juan Blasco 9 Wieland Schmidt 10 Liam Cox 11 Andy White 12 Fabrice Jourdain 13 Tim Ginz 14 Raphi Gamboni 15 Mark Love 16 Matt Breckenridge 17 Sam Baumann 18 Andy Kendall 19 Richard Marsden 20 Tomi Schoch 21 Charley Hui 22 Patrick Moser 18.10.08 / Future Team Basel FT - Rugby Lugano II 31:3 no report 12.10.08 / Future Team RFC Bishops St. Gallen - Basel FT 36:3 no report 11.10.08 / 1st Team RC Zug - RFC Basel 7:30 The first win of the season finally arrived in Zug with a comfortable 30-7 victory. First of all, the club owe a debt of thanks to Joerg Brude who once again donned his boots to help out the club. Without Joerg's help we would have been forced into forfeiting the game due to insufficient trained front rows. Even with Joerg stepping in, we still landed in Zug with only 16 players. The game itself was regularly interrupted due to the referee's zealous interpretation of the rucking laws. Both sides struggled to adapt and gave away numerous penalties for hands in the ruck and going off their feet. Fabrice opened the scoring with his 1st try for the 1st team with a break following some good phase play from the forwards. Try two came from Tims line break on half way, who fed Tibor to run clear. Converted by Juan. A further penatly from Juan took us to half time with a comfortable 15-0 lead. Three inexplicable missed tackles resulted in field position for Zug who spun the ball the length of the line giving them an overlap from which they scored a converted try. The response was instant though. A great team try was created from another great line break by Tim taking us into the 22. The ball was recycled quickly by the backs and fed back across field to the forwards. 2 pick and drives later had us camped on the try line. The referee awarded us a 5m scrum from which Juan picked up at the base and stretched out of the tackle to score. Juan popped over a penalty and Josh finished off the scoring when he chipped over the line and recovered to score and gain us the 4 try bonus point. Overall a good team performance. The defence was solid on the whole. The forwards recycled well and provided the backs with enough ball to create several scoring chances. Villain of the day had to be Kai, who was yellow carded for a high tackle. There were several candidates for man of the match. Henrik as usual was everywhere. But the award went to the virgin try scorer Fabrice, mainly for his stirling defensive work. Team 1.Dany Wyss 2. Thimon Fürst 3. Joerg Brude 4. Stevie Lazarus 5. Kai McCarthy 6. Henrik Haerden 7. Raphi Gamboni 8. Juan Blasco (c) 9. Wieland Schmid 10. Josh Ray 11. Andy White 12. Fabrice Jourdain 13. Tim Ginz 14. Tibor Nemeth 15. Benji McGuiness 16. Alex Broux Result 30-7 Tries: Fabrice, Tibor, Juan, Josh Conversions: Juan (2) Penalties: Juan (2) 04.10.08 / 1st Team RFC Basel - RC CMSG 7:41 no report 04.10.08 / Future Team RC Ticino - Basel FT 5:21 no report 27.09.08 / Others Switzerland - Germany 28:19 Basler Zeitung Match report. 20.09.08 / 1st Team Rugby Lugano - RFC Basel 13:10 no report 16.08.08 / Others Over 30's - Under 30's 28:28 no report 08.06.08 / Birds Yverdon Amazones - Basel Birds 107:15 There is, it would appear, an epidemic sweeping the Club. After manifesting itself in the First Team's defeats in Hermance and Bern recently, it has now arrived in the Birds' game. It is, of course, the strange phenomenon of not getting Players' heads into 'game' mode till half time. Although, seemingly, the Birds have received an extra bad dose of it in today's game at Yverdon. It took 45 of the 60 minutes in today's game before the Birds started playing, by which time they were 93-0 down. However, as the Birds finally stepped up a gear, the Birds won a 5 metre scrum, and fly half Christine dived over on the blind side for a score. The Pack had, in fact provided an excellent platform all game for the Birds, However, the Rucking game just wasn't working, and for all the Platform achieved at the Set Play, Nothing had had the chance to develop as mutiple phases were the sole property of the Amazones. However, Christine's try breathed new life into the Birds' performance, and finally things started happening as Mari received the ball on the Birds' 10 metre line, evaded a tackle, and, having ran half the length of the Pitch, managed to touch down in the corner under pressure. Yverdon did score another try, before Christine went over in a Carbon copy of the First Try. Yverdon scored again with the last play of the game, but the initial lethargy had been displaced from the Birds' game, as they had won the last quarter 15-14. And so, the League season draws to an end, but it does appear there are just a few signs of optimism for the Future, if only the Birds can shake off that other Major Cancer within the Club, that of not attending training sessions. 08.06.08 / Future Team Bishops St. Gallen - Basel FT 19:12 no report 31.05.08 / Future Team RC Eschen-Mauren Lynx - Basel FT 0:67 no report 25.05.08 / Future Team RC Zürich II - Basel FT 35:19 no report 18.05.08 / Others RC Zürich - RC Bern 33:8 Hahaha! 17.05.08 / 1st Team RFC Basel - RC Genève P-L-O 16:13 no report 17.05.08 / Birds Basel Birds - Luzern Dangels 0:81 no report 17.05.08 / Future Team Basel FT - Lugano Rugby 0:26 no report 03.05.08 / 1st Team RFC Basel - RC Yverdon 5:20 no report 27.04.08 / Future Team RC Würenlos - Basel FT 64:0 no report 26.04.08 / 1st Team Hermance Région RC - RFC Basel 45:0 no report 19.04.08 / Birds Basel Birds - Zürich Valkyries 0:78 In the first full 15 a side match in living memory in the Swiss Womens' League, the Birds showed a massive improvement over their last meeting with Zürich, when they shipped 19 Tries in 2x20 minutes. Everyone enjoyed themselves immensly, and the birds look forward to the possibility of another 15s match versus Luzern Dangels in their next game in a months' time (thanks to the scheduling commitee of the FSR for the gap). 12.04.08 / 1st Team RC Bern - RFC Basel 14:7 no report 12.04.08 / Future Team Basel FT - Baar Panthers RFC 45:8 no report 05.04.08 / Birds Basel Birds - Red Devils Bern 5:62 no report 05.04.08 / Future Team Basel FT - LUC 0:24 no report 15.03.08 / 1st Team RC Avusy - RFC Basel 36:3 no report 09.03.08 / Birds NSRV - RC Monza 21:0 7 of the Basel Birds were involved in the squad for Sunday's NSRV match against Italian side Monza. With everyone delighted to be involved in a game of 15s, Caoimhe started at Loosehead prop, with Lock Bea being subbed in to the pack at halftime. Pinki and Jenny were both subbed on with 15 minutes left, with Pinki going to the left wing, and Jenny taking over the Loosehead role. Unfortunately, Luzia, Eleanor and Christine remained on the bench as fulltime came just too soon for them. Nonetheless, a great day was had by all. Back row, l-r: Pinki, Caoimhe, Bea, Eleanor. Front row l-r: Christine, Jenny, Luzia. 17.11.07 / 1st Team RFC Basel - RC Zürich 0:15 no report 17.11.07 / Future Team Basel FT - Zürich II 0:17 no report 10.11.07 / Future Team Basel FT - Nyon II 0:26 no report 10.11.07 / 1st Team RFC Basel - RC Nyon 10:21 no report 03.11.07 / Birds Red Devils Bern - Basel Birds 18T-0 no report 03.11.07 / 1st Team RC Genève P-L-O - RFC Basel 20-0 no report 03.11.07 / Future Team Basel FT - RC Würenlos 0-65 no report 27.10.07 / Birds Luzern Dangels - Basel Birds 87-0 no report 27.10.07 / Future Team Basel FT - RC Baar Panthers 46-5 no report 27.10.07 / 1st Team RC Yverdon - RFC Basel 40-7 no report 20.10.07 / 1st Team RFC Basel - RC Avusy 25:5 (10:5) no report 20.10.07 / Future Team Basel FT - Bishops St. Gallen 22:27 (15:17) no report 20.10.07 / Birds Basel Birds - CERN Féminin 22:24 (17:19) no report 13.10.07 / 1st Team RFC Basel - Hermance RRC 17-31 no report 13.10.07 / Future Team Basel FT - RC Eschen-Mauren Lynx 45-5 no report 06.10.07 / Birds Basel Birds - Yverdon Amazones 15-29 no report 29.09.07 / Future Team Lausanne Université Club (L.U.C.) Rugby - Basel FT 83-0 no report 23.09.07 / 1st Team RC Zürich - RFC Basel 32-18 no report 23.09.07 / Birds Zürich Valkyries - Basel Birds 19t-0 no report 22.09.07 / Future Team Rugby Lugano - Basel FT 74 - 3 no report 15.09.07 / 1st Team RFC Basel - RC Bern 34-0 roon ye, Li. 09.09.07 / 1st Team RC Nyon - RFC Basel 46-10 no report

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