Rugby Club CERN – Meyrin – Saint-Genis

We left Geneva very early on the Sunday morning to make ou way up to Zurich for the kick-off at 12:30. The sun was shining and spirits were high. We were looking forward to a good game of rugby. Once we arrived, we were informed that we’d be kicking off a little later than planned due to second team men’s match. More time to prepare for us. It was very warm and it was decided that we would play 3 times 20 minute intervals instead of 2 times 30. Hopefully this would give us all more chance to remain hydrated.
As it was – hydration was the least of our problems. Zurich, at home, wanted to prove why they have finished 1st on the league so often and started with a bang. Immediately, we felt the pressure and found it very difficult to structure ourselves around the game they imposed. Our support wasn’t as fast or aggressive as theirs and neither was the defensive line. Soon, the match had become one-sided and we seemed to be always defending – rarely getting to play the ball at all. The first 40 minutes saw us struggle with this but there were moments where we proved our  worth with some strong scrums and some big hits. However, these odd moments weren’t enough – we needed to keep the intensity up for longer. Zurich were running away with the match with 9 tries already.  The last pause before the last 20 minutes had our coach tell us some harsh truths. We weren’t doing enough and we were letting ourselves down. During the last 20 minutes – our team moral was reborn. We fought hard, put more pressure on and sure enough Zurich weren’t getting through our line – in fact, they were making mistakes. It may have been too late in the game to change the result or to get us a score, but we finally found our determination and team strength. Let’s take that feeling forward to all out future games. Final score, Zurich 59 – Wildcats 0.