RC Zug vs RC Basel

Final Score: RC Zug 31 – RC Basel 15

Saturday morning in Zug looked like a scene out of a Vietnam war film, lots of mist with an eerie silence. It was not until about lunch time that the fog cleared and the warm sunshine filled the air.

 The match started with Basel really pushing very hard, they managed to break through very early on, but a great tackle from Denis stopped them in their tracks. It was not long after that we got back in their half of the pitch with some super kicking from Little Antoine. After that it was just a matter of time before we started racking up the points.

The scrums were not easy as Basel had about 50-60kg over us, but we contested as best as we could and won a reasonable amount of balls considering the advantage Basel had.

The second half was more of a bloody affair (hence the earlier Vietnam reference) with a lot of players on both sides covered in more ketchup than a Quentin Tarantino movie. Bogdan cut inside his mouth wide open and was dripping with blood, the referee had to send him off for five minutes to get treatment, but we all know he was more upset he would not be able to do any kissing in the showers afterwards. Alois (who was suffering with illness before the game) was substituted, not only for his benefit, but also for Basel’s, as he was ready to kill someone.

Cracks started to show in the Basel team, mentally they were beaten, but to be fair to them, they really did not give up and Zug had to defend right down to the last moments of the game.

In summary a great performance from the team, a lot of good communication between the backs and also great play from Bogdan (the un-tacklable), Jason, Simon (the beast), Roman, Daine (fresh in from Afghanistan), Emanuel and great precision kicking from our newest player Ian.

A special thanks to Laurent who has never played rugby before and came on as a replacement prop………he said he quite enjoyed it!!

Having read this on RC Basel’s website: “A bit surprisingly we lost 15-31 away to RC Zug” makes me think they came to Zug expecting an easy win……clearly they were mistaken. To rub salt into their wounds we also beat them in our club pub afterwards. No-one in the whole of the Swiss Rugby League can beat Big Antoine when it comes to downing a pint of beer!!

We would like to thank Basel for coming and we look forward to playing them again later on in the season.

With this win, it takes us to fourth place in the league, but there is no rest for the wicked. Next weekend we take on the mighty RC Nyon who are currently unbeaten. We hope to change that.

RC Zug

RC ARYA vs. RC Zug

Final Score: ARYA 19 - RC Zug 8

The night before the match we were struggling to get a team together. A lot of our squad are either injured or away. Finally after a lot of phone calls we managed to get sixteen players.

As it is such a long journey we travelled by coach. Not just any coach, a super pimped out one. To be honest it looked more like a strip-club than a coach with its neon blue lights inside.

 We arrived in ARYA to drizzling rain, and with their pitch surrounded by vineyards as far as the eye could see, it took some time to actually find a route that the huge coach could fit through.

 The first ten minutes of the game ARYA were on the back foot. Zug pressed very hard and we got within a few meters of the try line several times. It was not long though until ARYA starting racking up the points with penalty kicks.

 As the rain increased the ball handling on both teams decreased. The term ‘butter fingers’ did come up many times. Denis did miss out on a try with a great pass from Tommy, but made up for it by catching a bottle of wine which fell off the table on the coach on the way back.

 The second half was mainly played in the middle of the pitch with both teams defending hard. Our line-outs were much better with Alois winning 95% of the balls. A few more penalty kicks from ARYA sealed our fate, even though Zug pushed hard at the end, we just ran out of time.

 So one try for each of the teams meant the game was quite even, but it was the penalty kicks from ARYA which gained them the win.

 Unfortunately Justin managed to dislocate his shoulder. We wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to when he can play for us again. It seems like we are losing players to serious injuries every week now. If this continues we will have no players left by the end of the season.

 Roman was the man of the match, but there was very good play by Jason, Simon, Big Antoine and Little Antoine.

 After the match we joined ARYA in their quaint club-house (which had a very smelly toilet) for a couple of beers. They kindly packed the chicken & chips into takeaway bags as we could not stay to eat. We had a long journey back and also we needed to pick up Justin from the hospital.

 We would like to congratulate ARYA for their first win of the season and also thank them for their hospitality. We look forward to playing them again later on in the season.

 A special thanks to: 

Dani for coming to support even with his injury

Morgan & Andreas for coming to support
Claudio for bringing oranges

RC Zug

RC Zug vs RC Winterthur

Final Score: RC Zug 24 – RC Winterthur 35

*Please first read the review of the St Gallen tournament from july for some background information regarding our newly formed friendship with Winterthur.

A few days before the match we received an email from Winterthur asking for the match to be made one hour earlier as they had a friendly game afterwards with RC Lichtenstein. They also invited us to bring a bigger squad with the idea that some Zug players could play in their friendly.

What I got from the email was “We have a huge squad now enough to play two games”…………I was not wrong.

We arrived at Winterthur with only 16 players, three of which were already injured. On the plus side, the weather was good and the pitch looked great.

The game started well with Zug starting to rack up the points with great kicks from Little Antoine and Bogdan. Winterthur came back hard, but we finished the first half with a reasonably good lead. Even though we were having problems in the scrum, we were in a good position to win the match.

 

The second half though was a different matter. Cracks started to show in our team in all areas. As Winterthur started to gain more points we began arguing amongst ourselves. Negativity is contagious and before we knew it Winterthur were ahead. Then disaster struck, Dani ruptured his collateral ligament in his knee (he will not be able to play rugby for the rest of the year).

At this point Winterthur started making substitutions. Five players with fresh legs just ran rings round us. We finished the last few moments of the game with only 14 players.

When we came back to the changing rooms after the match there was a crate of beer waiting for us. I would like to point out that these were large bottles…..brilliant. After showering, we were taken to a BBQ area were we received some tasty chicken and a potato salad.

I must commend Winterthur for their line-outs. Very well organised and clearly they practice this a lot in training.

We would like to thank Winterthur for their hospitality and look forward to playing them again later on in the season.

RC Zug