In the third game of 2025 and the first home game, the Lions faced their historic rivals RSV K\u00f6ln II. A derby in front of a home crowd could not have provided a better opportunity for the RCBRS to turn the tide after the disappointing defeat in M\u00fcnster. After a strong and convincing week of training, Bonn was more ready than ever for the game against Cologne. The home team had also set itself the goal of doing the double after winning the first leg in Cologne. Kick-off was at 2 p.m. in bright sunshine and perfect rugby conditions for such an important match.
\nAfter a brief period of observation and testing the defenses, both teams decided to attack and the derby could begin! Bonn’s pressure on the visiting team’s defense forced the Cologne Fly to adapt. He decided to put the Bonn backline under constant pressure by using kicking as an option. This strategy allowed Cologne to gain territory and forced Bonn to work from behind every time. However, this was not enough to discourage the Lions, who opened the scoring with a fine try but were unfortunately unable to add to their tally. However, this was followed shortly afterwards by a damper and the visitors also scored a try to level the scores at 5:5. The Lions had several opportunities to regain the lead, but their accuracy on the penalty stroke prevented them from doing so. Bonn’s lack of precision when kicking in the first half of the game allowed Cologne to keep fighting and reward themselves with a second try.<\/p>\n
But a derby is a derby, and the home team didn’t want to let their fans down.
\nJust before half-time, Bonn’s fly half kicked behind the defense to his winger Dave and he scored one of the best tries of the year!
\nThe second half of the game was tough for both teams, it was a fierce defensive battle. Everything you can expect in a game like this. Neither team wanted to make any mistakes and Cologne was the more offensive team. It was therefore not surprising that Cologne scored a try after a good offensive move, using the full width to pull apart the Bonn defensive line. The score changed to 10-15 for Cologne. Motivated to come back and snatch a win from Cologne after all, the Lions decided to go boldly forward again. The strong work of the forwards enabled the entire team to get into the visitors’ 22 zone again. After a collective team effort, a third try was scored, which brought the score to 17-15 thanks to a successful conversion by Stean. The rest of the game was a strong defensive performance from Bonn until the end, which also shows the good work of Coach James in training during the week, who had made all the necessary adjustments from the last game.
\nWe would also like to thank RSV K\u00f6ln II for the exciting derby on home turf.<\/p>\n
We also wish all our Lions who were injured in this game a speedy recovery! Get well soon, boys! We would like to thank our fantastic Game Day Manager Alf and all our fans who came along to cheer on the Lions and make this derby more than just a game!<\/p>\n
Awards:<\/strong> 1 – Robert 2 – Nico 3 – Salih<\/p>\n 6 – Max O. 4 – Rambow 5 – Pablo 7 – Christo<\/p>\n 8 – Sam<\/p>\n 9 – Stean<\/p>\n 10 – Daniel<\/p>\n 12 – Vincent G.<\/p>\n 13 – Jonas<\/p>\n 11 – Chris 14 – Martin<\/p>\n 15 – Vincent M.<\/p>\n Finishers:<\/strong> Text: Vincent Martinet Thrilling derby ends with a narrow victory for the Lions In the third game of 2025 and the first home game, the Lions faced their historic rivals RSV K\u00f6ln II. A derby in front of a home crowd could not have provided a better opportunity for the RCBRS to turn the tide after the disappointing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5642","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\/5642","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=5642"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rcbrs.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5647,"href":"https:\/\/rcbrs.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5642\/revisions\/5647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rcbrs.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rcbrs.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rcbrs.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rcbrs.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHammer of the Day – Francesco Forin
\nMan of the Match – Pablo Sottile
\nStarting Lineup:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n16 – Christoph
\n17 – Alexander
\n18 – Nassim
\n19 – Francesco
\n20 – David
\n21 – Michael<\/p>\n
\nPhotos: Anke Rolfes and Timo Jakobs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"