Rugby Football Club Basel

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