Stockholm Exiles made the long journey west to meet Spartacus. In what was a bruising encounter, the visitors took the game to the home team, what they probably did not expect was the ferocity of the tackling and the defensive organization in front of them. Apparently every time a player in black got the ball, he also got a hard tackle to go with it and was knocked backwards. Eventually the visitors resorted to a kicking game and from a fortuitous bounce scored the only try of the game just before half time. Evidently the second half was a similar story, with Exiles eventually running out winners by 0-14.
Goteborg took on Pintvin in the bottom of the table clash. Both sides had their strongest sides out and both were desperate for the win. The visitors were the more composed side and played to their game plan very effectively. Attacking well and ensuring that their defense was up to the task. GRF unfortunately could not handle the pressure and collapsed to a 0-23 loss. This leaves them bottom of the table with Pingvin leap frogging them.
Some interesting results this weekend, with Spartacus appearing to be closing the gap on the Northern teams, it should be a good match to be at when they take on reigning leaders Hammarby in two weeks time. Goteborg travel to Exiles and Pingvin make the long trek to Enkoping.
Great result for Hammarby again, also to Pingvin who much needed the win. Was at the Exiles Spartacus match and in deed it was a bruising encounter. Some massive hits from both sides. Alan Letele made his debut for Spartacus and proved yet again he is the hard man of swedish rugby with some huge hits , also the kiwi 7 looked very impressive. The back row of Spartacus has to be the best of the country i think.Exiles reverted to a kicking game which came after turning down shots at goal early on but found no way through the spartacus defence. A lucky bounce of a kick deep in there half was the only way they scored.Exiles dominated set peice and after seeing enköping play the week before i say Exiles are a better team. It will interesting to see Hammarby play in 2 weeks which i feel will be another bloodbath in another tough encounter.All credit to spartacus again who are starting to form a team which is hard to beat. A great turn around to the year before where they were the easy beats. Looks like GRF will struggle to beat the drop after losing to Pingvin at home , what a shame to see them struggle now.
ReplyDeleteMurray
The Spartacus vs Exiles game wasn't the highest calibre game for sure. Spartacus's game plan was to spoil the Exiles game, they never looked like scoring. In fact they spent 70 minutes camped in their own half defending and not once put pressure on the Exiles try line.
ReplyDeleteWith hands in the ruck almost all the time which resulted in one of the back row being sin binned, plus a red card for punching in front of the ref. It seems Spartacus have developed a dirty side to their game.
How the prop that came from Enköping stayed on the field is a small miracle, 4 extremely late hits on the Exiles 10, punching, gouging and not to mention grabbing every guys nuts he could get hold of. It was a disgrace to rugby.
Spartacus defended well to give them their well deserved plaudits. But you have to be able to do more than defend tobeat teams like Exiles.
The 0-14 score line flatters Spartacus a bit, poor handling and a few poor decisions from Exiles throughout the game kept the scoreline down.
Good wins for Hammarby and Pingvin though, makes the race for 4th place an interesting battle. Can GRF squeeze a win out against Spartacus in August and then go to Trelleborg and hold off Pingvin? Can Spartacus pick up a win away against Pingvin, something they've never done? Can Pingvin maintain their homefield advantage and sneak into 4th place?
Spartacus are the form team so far, but they were this time last year and had a really poor second half of the season in the Elite. On the showing of their last 2 games they seem to be the best option for 4th place, but they like the others will struggle when they travel to Stockholm and Enköping and play on the much larger fields.
Ian Caple was telling people that he had been "signed" by Stockholm Exiles. Interesting
ReplyDeleteSigned as what? The man's nuts even Exiles should see that.
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