© Serge Feltes
A monumental day for Luxembourgish rugby as they beat Moldova 19-0 to gain promotion.
In what was the playoff final to gain the right to entry into the Rugby Trophy, Luxembourg defeated a physical Moldovan side at the Josy Barthel in front of around 1200 people. A good performance showcased why the Red Lions deserve to play at a higher level. Both teams came into the game undefeated in their respective seasons and the stakes could not have been higher.
The opening minutes of the game saw the home team dominate and apply pressure resulting in an early penalty which was unfortunately missed. In the ensuing moments there was a slight momentum shift in favour of the Moldovans, whose physical presence was made clear in the scrum where their brute force ended in an injury to Luxembourg lock Guillaume Thevenot - however the Luxembourg defence held strong. The Moldovans missed two opportunities to take the lead from penalties.
The deadlock was finally breached after a kick in behind by the Moldovans was gathered by Luca Zanette who stepped his way through 3 defenders and was stopped in his tracks by a high tackle. The resulting penalty was capitalised on by Adrian Mendez who reacted before the defence was set to break the line and go on an impressive run himself. Once again, the Moldovan defence could not deal with the pressure and gave away another penalty.
Showing their intentions, instead of going for the points Luxembourg went for the corner and applied more pressure. A good lineout and some phase play resulted in another penalty which was taken quickly and spread out to Fintan Lawlor who jinked past one defender and was able to dive over the line, also converting his own try. 7-0 was the score as the teams headed back inside for the interval — a fairly even half plagued by penalties, but advantage Luxembourg.
The first fifteen minutes of the second half displayed why Luxembourg are the team that is worthy of a higher challenge: lots of possession and some good kicking meant Luxembourg were able to apply high pressure to the Moldovans and it was only a matter of time until they cracked once again. This happened when Christian Olsen found Sean Carroll in some space in the midfield and they were able to breach the defensive line as he was brought down on the 5 meters. The ball was then spread out wide where Domenico Orsino was able to bulldoze his way over the line.
The score was now 12-0 and Luxembourg could smell blood, from the kick off once again playing the territory game and setting up shop in the opposing half. Having pinned them in their own 22 through some astute kicking, Luxembourg forced a lineout for themselves on the 5 meters. A perfectly executed set piece ended with the ball being spread out wide to Adrian Mendez who beat one defender and acrobatically dotted the ball down in the corner. A great try was topped off with an equally impressive conversion by Matteo Franzina to make it 19-0.
Moldova's efforts to get back into the game were thwarted by an ever-present Luxembourgish defence who would not give them any room to breathe. Moldova, a team that had been prolific points scorers in the Conference C were held to 0 by a very resilient Luxembourg side, a credit to all the players involved.
An exciting time to be a Luxembourg rugby fan as they will face some more formidable opposition next season, with the likes of Poland, Sweden, Croatia, Czech Republic and Lithuania in the Rugby Trophy. A very talented squad, a combination of experience and youthfulness puts Luxembourg in a great position to fight it out at this level.
