Over the course of the weekend, Luxembourg Rugby 7s took part in the first leg of the Men’s Rugby Europe Trophy in Zagreb, Croatia. They were placed in a very difficult group alongside Switzerland, Romania, and Monaco.
In the opening game against the Swiss, who had many high level players, the Luxembourg team displayed that they are a good sevens side, dominating much of the possession in the game and showing a lot of patience in attack.
However, they were unable to capitalise on their possession and a few handling errors resulted in missed opportunities. Some missed tackles in defence allowed the Swiss to score on a few occasions—sevens can be a cruel sport where a lapse in concentration ultimately ends in conceding.
There were many positives to take from the 21-5 loss, especially young Finley Dew scoring on his first Luxembourg senior appearance.
Up next were Romania, very tough opponents who were relegated from the division above, a team with a lot of skill, pace, and power. They showcased their 7s prowess by keeping the ball in the early stages and eventually kicking the ball through to score after an early tackle led to a penalty try.
However, Luxembourg struck back through the returning Stuart Logier (out injured for several years) as he grubbered the ball through the Romanian defence and regathered his own kick to score himself, beautifully converted from the corner by Lucas Schmitt.
On the stroke of halftime, with the scores level, Luxembourg scored a great team try with offloads galore, allowing for great continuity piercing down the middle of the Romanian defence, where Finley Dew finished off under the posts.
With Luxembourg in ascendancy, they continued from kickoff in the second half where the ball was spread to Alexandre Piquet, who made a great break from his own 5m, opting to kick it deep as he was being hunted down by rapid defenders. The ball was gathered by Romania, but still chasing his own kick, Piquet forced an error with good defence, and Matteo Franzina capitalised by dotting the ball down to make it 19-7.
As is so often the case in 7s, the game can change quickly. One error by Luxembourg saw the Romanians score once, then they regathered their own kick-off and scored anew—19-19. The physical nature of the sport meant there were some tired bodies on the pitch, and the Romanians were the team to capitalise, eventually scoring in the last minute of the game. A valiant effort against a good side, once again allowed for positives to be taken away from a loss.
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For the final game of the group stages, Luxembourg faced Monaco. The team showed a great display of fluid rugby where the Monaco defence could not deal with the numerous offloads that allowed Luxembourg to score through great combination play. Tries by Franzina, Lawlor, and Mendez saw the score at 19-0.
The game was capped off by the Piquet brothers combining and the younger of the two, Clément, going on a mazy run to score under the posts. Eventually winning the game convincingly and not conceding, against a respectable Monaco side, 26-0.
Due to the format of the tournament, Luxembourg were given a chance at revenge against Romania in the quarter-finals of the competition. A chance they were not going to miss. Luxembourg were the first to score.
From a scrum, the ball was spread out wide to Franzina on the wing, who cut inside and was able to offload to John Fitzpatrick who scored in the corner.
A difficult conversion was missed, and the score remained 5-0 until the break—a tense first half.
Romania came out of the gates the stronger side and were able to punish the Luxembourg defence twice, bringing the score to 12-5.
The ensuing minutes were dominated by the men from the Grand Duchy, keeping possession and slowly making their way into the Romanian half. Some great work by Kevin Kombia dragged in an array of Romanian defenders, then popping the ball to Stuart Logier who had some nice combination play with Finley Dew and the latter ended the phase with a good finish.
The conversion was missed and, with only 50 seconds of the game remaining, a win looked unlikely.
A great kick-off by Fintan Lawlor gave the Luxembourg team a great chance to regain possession, but it was very well taken by the Romanians who then managed to break the defensive line. Lawlor, who dropped to sweep following his kick, was the last defender facing a two-on-one situation.
Instead of panicking then committing to a tackle, he held his ground and as the ball was played, he swooped in, knocked the ball in the air, and reclaimed it. Like a flash, he ran to the try area and heroically scored with the last action of the game. Luxembourg won and set up a semi-final against the Czech Republic.
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Now at the business end of the tournament, up against a big challenge facing a good Czech side. Early tries from Fitzpatrick, Franzina, and Mendez saw Luxembourg cruise to a shock 19-0 lead within 4 minutes. However, the Czechs were able to score two tries themselves before the break through their athletic players who were too fast for the Luxembourgish defense.
With the momentum of the game having shifted, the Czechs took the game to Luxembourg and unfortunately, they did not quite have the response required. Numerous missed tackles led to try after try in the second half, ending the game with a disappointing 42-19 loss.
All was still to play for in the bronze final against a very talented Swedish team. The Swedes proved too good in the first half; despite early Luxembourgish possession, they were able to score two tries in quick succession.
The scores were narrowed by a fantastic individual try from Lucas Schmitt, who caught the ball near his own 22, bumped off one defender, shrugged off another, and showed great speed to run it all the way home.
Just before the break, Sweden was able to stretch their advantage to 19-5. They scored a well-worked team try at the start of the second half and the Luxembourg side looked beaten. There was still some punishment in store as the Swedes were able to score one more and end the game 33-5 winners.
4th place for Benedetti’s men is very good going at this level of competition. The team will look to regroup and prepare for the second leg in Budapest in just under a month's time.
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