Turvens: Last Game Saturday Before Half Term Break

On Saturday October 16th, 2021, our Turvens sent 3 teams to Diok, Leiden to play against Hermes, HRC, and Diok. Due to the impact of the autumn half term break in the Netherlands, there were only 7 teams in total. Thus, one of our teams could only play 2 matches. In addition, because one of the clubs went to the wrong field during the first round, we had to mix team 1 & 3 during the last round against Diok 1. But the minor confusions do not have significant impacts on our Warriors. At the end, we had 6 wins and 2 losses.

Team I: 12:6, 13:2, 7:5; 51 tags and 8 double tags were pulled.

Coach Cedric: “Great Saturday. A lot of involvement of all the players. The 2nd year secured the score with a lot of tries and a strong defense. We also saw amazing progress of our 1st year with some first tries for some of them. They are not afraid anymore of the action. They follow the game, pick up the ball and go for try. Quick back in defense and never give up. We also saw a great support and more and more focus during the different games. Bravo to all of them.”

Coach Pascal: “Good team playing and a great balance of strength in the team, I really saw some team spirit and construction involving both 2nd and 1st years with a lot of passes. Enjoy your leave.”

Team II: 12:2, 7:9, 3:6; 82 tags and 6 double tags were pulled.

Although Team II has two losses, the data shows how intensive those three matches were. These 8 young players (only 1 was born in 2014, 6 were born in 2015, and 1 was born in 2016) have played 3 games without resting. Great job!

Coach Bertrand: “Today was an interesting day. The 3 matches played by our warriors were very different. The first one was too easy against the Hermes team as our defense was strong. Well done. Then we had a serious match against Diok which had very fast runners that were difficult to stop as the warriors started to be tired. The last one against HRC was also tight. After an equilibrated first half our warriors had to play the 2nd half against a fresh team as the HRC had many substitutes waiting to play, while our Warriors were getting more tired. But they remained very courageous the all game. Even though we could feel some disappointment our Warriors never gave up and kept playing till the end with a lot of intensity. As the season is progressing we see an increasing game level, which is good. Our warriors learned that you have to adapt your game. The better the opponent the more solidarity is required!”

Team III: 12:6, 6:4; 34 tags and 11 double tags were pulled.

Head Coach Gavin: “After a slightly shaky start, team 3 started to settle in to a good phase of play in game 1. Lots of good fast ball enabled our Warriors to use all of the available field to punch holes in the opposition defence. As we moved in to game 2, things got a bit tougher as we only had 1 substitute while our opponents had quite a few of fresh sets of legs. Our Warriors kept their chins up and ears pinned back and ended up triumphant at the final whistle. We didn’t have a third round game due to lack of an opposition so instead we played a Warriors select vs HRC. Although some amazing spirit and lions hearts, our Warriors tired legs were overcome by a very fresh HRC team who played some nice rugby. We are super impressed at the standard of play making this early in the season, and cannot wait to continue evolving and improving as we move through the season. Well done to all!”

There are no games on the following Saturday. On the 30th, as most of our Warriors will still be on holiday, it is still uncertain about our matches that day. Hope all our big Warriors and small ones will take a nice break then get ready for more games in cold and harsh weather!

Ying Zhou-Rameseder
Team Manager Turvens