RC Ticino vs RC Zug

Final Score: RC Zug 20 – RC Ticino 21
After a long journey through the Gotthard tunnel (luckily not much traffic) we arrived in Bellinzona to warm sunshine and a wonderfully prepared pitch. Also there is a beautiful castle overlooking the whole valley. Bellinzona’s castles are considered amongst the finest examples of medieval fortification architecture in Switzerland.

The game kicked off with Zug on the defensive. Ticino racked up 9 points just through kicks alone as they could not break past our defence. It was not until Zug scored the first try of the game that the match started to get interesting.

The second half started just as the weather began to change and Ticino pushed hard in the first few moments. Now the grey clouds had moved in and the heavens opened up, most of the second half was played with hard rain.

Their full back (who had crazy long hair) was one of the fastest runners I have seen in a while. He managed to slip through our defensive line a couple of times in the second half.

Overall we had the advantage throughout the match by winning majority of the scrums and line-outs. There were some minor mistakes made on our side during the game, which considering how close the score was, probably lost us the game.

At this point I would normally thank the opposite team for welcoming us to their pitch and hosting the game but this time I don’t think I will bother. In 18 years of rugby I have never come across a team with as little respect for the game as RC Ticino. Biting people in the rucks and also pushing and shoving other players trying to start a fight just because they made a good tackle is simply not what rugby is about.

You might think that this review is written with sour grapes because we lost, but I would point out that last season we had several near losses, most famous against RC Lausanne, in which we were gracious in defeat.

We look forward to our next meeting with them which we plan on teaching them a lesson on how to conduct themselves on the pitch and also in the pub afterwards.

We are always humble in the eyes of defeat no matter how close the score is.

RC Zug