Outclassed by RG Heidelberg

RG Heidelberg 62:12 RC Luxembourg

The gulf in class between the league’s strongest and weakest teams has been hammered home in the second and third matches of RC Luxembourg’s season.

After an all too easy victory against fellow strugglers, RC Berlin, Luxembourg’s fortunes were reversed this Saturday. The visit to RG Heidelberg provided a sobering lesson in fitness, handling and interplay.

In the first half, Luxembourg managed to limit the damage and maintain tenuous contact. This was helped by a yellow card reducing RGH to 14 men for 10 minutes.

Despite managing to keep all 15 men on the pitch throughout, Luxembourg had no answer to RGH’s excellent game play and conceded six tries in the second half alone.

As in the reverse fixture last season, RGH’s scrum half, Felix Meffert, was at the heart of everything good. His ability to select and rifle a pass to the right person at the right time was complemented by excellent kicking choices and ball carrying.

But it was a team-wide performance reflecting RGH’s huge strength in depth. They’ve been recruiting heavily over the summer period and, as a result, have around 50 players training together on a regular basis.

And, boy, do they train. Immediately after this resounding victory, the RGH squad went off and did a few sets of intense exercise.

Luxembourg will look back on this match and take solace from the much improved discipline while RGH have their sights firmly set on overhauling Frankfurt’s league dominance.