After the expected tough start to the second half of the season against Walferdange on their home rugby pitch, the RCBRS men went to their first away game in the state capital on February 24, 2024. As they had won the first leg by the narrowest of margins, expectations were high that they would be able to take home something worthwhile. Although they were able to field a full squad, both coaches had to stay in Bonn at short notice and the pitch, which had obviously already been well used beforehand, looked more like a muddy field than a rugby pitch. Despite this, the 1st XV got off to a good start to the match and continued the Text: Florian Korbmacher Disappointed Lions after mud fight in D\u00fcsseldorf After the expected tough start to the second half of the season against Walferdange on their home rugby pitch, the RCBRS men went to their first away game in the state capital on February 24, 2024. As they had won the first leg by the narrowest of margins,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4319,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-match-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rcbrs.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rcbrs.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rcbrs.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rcbrs.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rcbrs.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rcbrs.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4324,"href":"https:\/\/rcbrs.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4323\/revisions\/4324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rcbrs.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rcbrs.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rcbrs.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rcbrs.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHosts initially under pressure. Although captain Johannes Dziuba put the first penalty kick resulting from this phase of pressure just wide of the uprights, he had obviously adjusted better to the surface the next time and scored the first three points for Bonn. With the lead behind them, they once again managed to force D\u00fcsseldorf into their own half. Tough defensive work and, in particular, “air sovereignty” in the lanes created the basis for some good opportunities, which, however, could not be converted into points. It was therefore more or less logical that D\u00fcsseldorf punished Bonn’s carelessness shortly before the break:
\nThe hosts took control of the game and proved to be much more efficient. After Bonn had managed to fend off a few attacks, the D\u00fcsseldorf forward put so much pressure on the Bonn backline that the referee awarded a penalty try after a ruck infringement. As a result, Bonn went into the break trailing 3:7, which was certainly necessary given the difficult surface. After the restart, the game was initially evenly poised, with the RCBRS men benefiting from the fact that D\u00fcsseldorf had to play ten minutes short-handed due to repeated ruck offenses and high tackles. After restoration
\nUnfortunately, our boys served their opponents the second try on a silver platter. A failed release kick by Bonn resulted in a D\u00fcsseldorf scrum, after which the home side scored points in the middle after a few phases with the crowbar. However, our men did not give up and gave everything they had to turn the game in their favor. Captain Dziuba was able to convert another penalty kick just two minutes after the try and Bonn’s offense was then able to establish itself in D\u00fcsseldorf territory again. However – as in the first half – too many beautifully carved-out chances were not finished off consistently in the final few meters, thus giving away much-needed points. After an unnecessary penalty kick given away in front of the Bonn sticks was converted by D\u00fcsseldorf in the 72nd minute, the Bonn Lions wanted to at least force a defensive bonus point. They also managed to work their way up to the D\u00fcsseldorf line and the hosts also weakened themselves with another yellow card after a quick penalty kick. Unfortunately, carelessness was a constant in Bonn’s play and so, after several of their own scrambles, they were unable to get the ball into the opposing team’s goal, instead ending the game at 17:6 with a symptomatic ball forward. Despite the disappointing result, there were some positive aspects that could be taken from the courageous D\u00fcsseldorf mud fight into the upcoming training sessions. The performance of player-of-the-match Jonas Kock<\/strong>, who played an exemplary game on the inside, and the hammer-of-the-day<\/strong> tackle by Albert <\/strong>Zerbst<\/strong>, who brought down a D\u00fcsseldorf player in textbook fashion, deserve special mention. If they manage to put a stop to their own mistakes and become more consistent in converting their chances over the next two weeks, a promising home game against RC Paderborn should await the Bonn Lions on March 9, 2024.<\/p>\n
\nPhotos: Frank Reimann (lichtschaffen.de)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"