Rugby Football Club Basel

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