Positive Result 15-37

With the news that Sweden's men managed to reverse the loss they suffered against Denmark last year, this was indeed a positive result, writes our reporter from Copenhagen.
The match was played under inclement weather and with the amount of rain increasing it was not a day for expansive rugby. However with the starting line up there was more than enough talent to ensure that if Sweden performed the basics well, they would win the game handsomely. Yet although they took the lead very early, some poor defending and indiscipline allowed the Danes to close the gap.  There were some encouraging signs in both the scrummaging and line out operations. Was this due to the inclusion of a new hooker?
Sweden were always leading and managed to dominate most of the set pieces in the first half, yet there were far too many mistakes in defence and attack. With poor decision making allowing the Danes to close the lead to just 3 points at half time.
There were no changes made at the beginning of the second half and once again Sweden started brightly and within minutes had scored and looked as if they would start to get some cohesion in their game to. Alas, this was not to be, and even against what was basically a poor team, the mistakes continued to flow. Unfortunately once changes were made to the pack even that source of dominance dried up and the pack at times were driven backwards, in the scrum.
The Danes started to make numerous changes as did the Swedes and the match disintegrated even more. Probably not helped by a referee, who clearly, was not good enough to officiate an international match, albeit a friendly. However he was not the reason for what was a poor team performance against a poor side.
The positives were a few reasonable individual performance, another win and the set piece looked good at times. Will it be as effective against the bigger packs from Latvia and Croatia? We can only hope so, as in our opinion they will prove to be a much sterner test than this was. Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise.
What of the players who were given a last chance to prove themselves, who were they and did they stand out and justify their inclusion? We wait to see what the FK decides with interest, who with all the hard work that he is putting in deserves the success that he merits.