Days 4 and 5 of Luxembourg M30’s journey at the Touch World Cup highlight the importance of mental and physical resilience in a major competition, especially for a modestly-sized nation.

The Luxembourgish team has had an eventful series of matches: notably, a narrow late loss in a well-fought affair against European rivals Sweden and a David and Goliath-esque rendez-vous with M30 division World Champions Australia which, despite the heavily skewed scoreboard, showed great improvement from the team.

Day 4 started off with a game against one of the tournament favourites for this division: England. The 3-14 scoreline shows how the team is much more competitive than last years Euros.

This game also brought us James Hancock's 50th international cap, an impressive milestone in the world of touch.

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James Hancock reaches the impressive mark of 50 caps. / © Touch Luxembourg

In the second game of the day, Luxembourg met Canada and the team was edged out by a close 7-5.

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Warming up for Canada match. / © Touch Luxembourg

The final game of the day was against Switzerland where, despite being 3-2 up at half time, the team ran out of steam in the heat of the day, losing 8-5.

Day 4 really showed the importance of fitness and resilience in big competitions.

Going into Day 5, Luxembourg played their final pool game against Spain in the midday sun. A tight first half saw both sides even at 3-3.

Spain, however, came out stronger in the second half and ended up bringing the score to 3-7.
 
Luxembourg is scheduled to play Hong Kong China next, on 20 July.