The 6th Round of the Oranje Series was a great success again from HRC Touch side.
Unfortunately this round had to move to a different location due to postponed games at HRC grounds. Luckily Rotterdamse Rugby Club had their fields available to host the 6th Round of the Oranje Series.
A HRC team with great mixes of different levels where the focus wasn’t on winning but execution and following the game plan.
Our first opponent of the day was Eindhoven Touch. Secure as we were on the field, Eindhoven took an early lead in the game but we didn’t panic and had the confidence to come back with a good reply by making the game tied by great scores and plays from Leon, Frank, Nico, Naëlle and Justin to lead the team with a comfortable lead. Especially Leon made it very hard for Eindhoven’s defense by making some great tries for HRC Touch. A great play from Naëlle, who set up Vincent free, with her great running line and decision-making to let him score from the halfway line! Our team was hungry for more and executed everything well, composed and with great forward momentum to reach a half time score of 6-1.
The second half got a bit more scrappy from our side and we went a bit off road from the game plan to train ourself remembering our roles on the field. Despite that we kept making meters and put down a comfortable win of 10-2 versus Eindhoven Touch.
Our second game, we had to face our rivals Amsterdam Touch trying to secure the first spot in our group where both teams defeated Eindhoven. With this win we would face the number 1 of the other group heading to the final. But first a win was needed and it was a completely different match than versus Eindhoven as we faced a more structured and experienced team.
It was a good game where both sides were at the same level and made it very hard. Justin who was playing a very strong game took HRC by the hand with this speed, running line and great execution to shake off the Amsterdam defences. HRC didn’t drop down their energy and kept pushing Amsterdam backwards which resulted in a 2-1 lead at half time at the hooter where Bradley scored the second try which brought some extra boost to the team.
The second half HRC extended their lead with 2 tries with some great catching from Azarja, who just joined HRC Touch, on the wing! But after that Amsterdam had a good reply to bring back the score to try in difference. We knew from that point that Amsterdam wasn’t giving much away and kept the pressure up against us, but our Subbox were superb with great forward momentum again where we took the lead of 6-3 with also good experience work from the mid players Armance, Andrex, Bradley, Lydia, Leon and Vincent. At the final hooter Amsterdam nicely outplayed our defense and noted a final score of 6-4 to HRC Touch, who secured the first spot in their group.
The final like the previous round was versus URC Touch again, both teams ready to face each other and set to play a game for the audience to enjoy. HRC Touch started with the Tap Off and after the second Touch we lost possession and had to go back in defense to stop Utrecht from attacking. Unfortunately they succeeded in taking the lead and not long after that they were running away with a 3-0 lead. From that moment we knew we needed to work harder in defense and push them back hard on attack and work on every small detail to get the scores in. This happened with some great scopes from our Captain Bradley who got through the defense line of URC to offload the ball to his teammates who made the tries and with a nice diving try on the line to bring back HRC in the game with a half time score of 5-4 for URC Touch.
The second half was a strong game from both sides where HRC Touch didn’t let URC Touch score at all and HRC equalised the game by good work from Bradley again to put Bhaas in a good position delivering the ball in a 2 vs 1 situation, 5-5. After that HRC had more attempts to take over the lead, but unfortunately URC Touch got away with it where HRC should had take the lead twice. Drop Offs were needed to decide the winner in this final, where the game continues after full time with 4 vs 4 for 2 minutes. When no scores are noted after 2 minutes, they game will resume into 3 vs 3 until the team makes the winning try. During the Drop Offs HRC Touch lost a bit of their momentum in attack and kept URC Touch easily alive. URC Touch took advantage of that and made a nice try between the mids. HRC Touch tried to force an equalizer but the time became our enemy and sadly we lost the final.
But it was a good team performance where our training came back into place nicely and we knew our exact roles in terms of execution to succeed a great game plan and build confidence for the future when we will be heading out to tournaments abroad!
