Match Report: Berlin Irish RFC vs Berliner SV 1892
A strong first half display wasn’t enough for the Berlin Irish on Sunday, as they went down to a fast playing BSV92 side at Forckenbeckstrasse.
Early pressure and possession combined with a strong blitz defence earned 2 penalties, both of which were converted by fly half Picard to take the Irish to a 6–0 lead after 15 minutes.
BSV began to dominate possession, with a succession of line-outs in and around the Irish 22, but good work from flankers Ruiz and Yeates repeatedly foiled any attempts to form a drive. Nonetheless, the pressure began to show and a well worked strike move through the backs saw a try under the posts converted to put BSV into a 6–7 lead.
The game swung back towards the Irish, with first fullback Paterson coming agonizingly close, then a strong driving maul from the pack working its way into the BSV 22. The resulting backs play saw a 2-man overlap and Picard was able to dummy and dance his way through for a try with Martin and Marquez outside him spare. Unfortunately he was unable to convert his own score, leaving Irish leading just 11–7
The half descended into a messy series of rucks and scrums with both sides looking a little disjointed, however an excellent move from the half way line tore open a hole in the Irish backs who were unable to stop a runaway score to the corner—11–14 at half-time.
The second half saw BSV strongly in control of the game, with Irish being forced to make attritional tackles, resulting in a blood injury for hard-working 2nd row Kleymeyer. Despite the Irish having the upper hand in the set piece, the lack of discipline shown at the break-down began to tell, as first replacement back row Opar and then 2nd row James were sin binned for repeated infringements.
With Irish down to 13 men, a strong defence still continued to solidly hold out on their own try line with 20mins of solid pressure, leaving BSV only a single penalty to show for their troubles. 11–17 after 75 minutes.
Unfortunately, a miscommunication from the resulting kickoff let BSV return the ball directly under the posts to stretch their lead with a converted try to 11–24.
Irish rallied and, back to 14 men for the final moments, forced a 5-meter line out. After the resulting drive was stopped dead, Picard almost put de Laversin and Foran through under the posts from 5 metres out with a backhand offload, but a knock-on in the tackle signalled the end of a hard fought game.
Final Score:
Irish 11–24 BSV92
Tries: Picard ×1
Penalties: Picard ×2
Man of the Match: Kleymeyer
Pictures courtesy of Tom McGuinness.
Full game video, produced by Scrum Media.