SportGibraltar

Round 2 for Gibraltar Dragons Rugby Juniors

Another weekend of Rugby in week 2 of the Andalucian league, had over fifty boys of all ages from Gibraltar and Spain playing rugby at Guadiaro for the Gibraltar Dragons.

The day started with a training session for the S G HAMBROS under 13s, unfortunately Malaga CR couldn’t bring there under 13s, so we had to train and play amongst themselves. As always this made the competition a little more edgy as both teams tried to overcome the other in a hard fought competition, however the boys were disappointed not to have another team to play. This will change soon when the under 13s begin there league of which the home game is at Guadiaro on the 14th of DEC.

Next up we had the IBEX under 11s who played the San Roque under 11s, though we say under 11s Bradley Hewitt and Sheigh Wilson actually play under 9s, though this didn’t stop them getting stuck in. The San Roque team is new this year and is building, but it’s good to see a team locally who we can arrange more games against and maybe build a mini league by getting schools in Gibraltar and the Campo area involved which would bring local rugby on leaps and bounds. The IBEX Under 11s won but the score wasn’t important in this landmark game for San Roque and Gibraltar Dragons who are working so hard to develop junior rugby.

This brought up the first league game of the day when the ALL SPORTS BAR Under 15s played Malaga CR, Malaga have recently amalgamated two teams, the CR team and the University, giving them a much stronger squad however we were confident.

A good start from Malaga, who took no time to switch on, saw them scoring a try in the first two minutes and rocking the confidence of the Dragons this wasn’t helped when Malaga scored again ten minutes later, the signs were ominous. Malaga were throwing the ball round well and out boys seemed shell shocked, however we started clawing our way back into the game through the forwards but still we weren’t working as a unit and Malaga capitalized on our indecision and scored a third try.

Some good rucking and mauling from our guys who finally seemed to be gelling resulted in a try from Jeremy King able converted by Daniel Carey, we went into half time 3 tries to 1 confident that the second half would be a different story.

Due to injury a couple of main players had to be changed and the balance of the team was disrupted which compounded Gibraltar Dragons further and Malaga began to take total control, Gibraltar Dragons lacked direction or focus and they were exploited with Malaga running riot and our boys couldn’t find there way back, a disappointment after last weeks sterling performance and the score finally finished Gibraltar Dragons 7 Malaga CR 61 and the result was a fair reflection of the days game. The Dragons were outplayed by a better team but from this the boys will move forward and pick themselves up and show what there made off. Next week they are away to Marbella A which will be another stiff test, but lets not forget this is only the boys second season and they are developing and learning on the hoof and hopefully this minor set back will be put behind them and they will step off from here.

Man of the Match was Daniel Carey who led from the front, tackling hard supporting well.

Final Game of the Day was VOLKER STEVIN Under 17s in only there second match, and what these guys lack in technique they make up for in enthusiasm and commitment with some of the hardest tackling I have ever seen, but Malaga CR have a strong under 17s team who have played together for awhile and again it showed with some slick passing and support play, our guys are still at the level where they take the ball two steps too many, this isn’t a criticism but part of the learning process and when they pick this up the speed we have will really start to show. The forwards had a hard time in the scrum but again this is only a learning curve and technique which they will learn quickly in this hard league, but there defence, tackling and heart leaves nothing to be desired as that is all there and the skills will come with it. There was some fine individual runs from the Volker Stevin boys and some try saving tackles as well as stoic defence of the try line, but under all the pressure the Malaga players slowly started finding holes and inevitably the tries came with a final score of

VOLKER STEVIN Gibraltar Dragons 0 Malaga CR 61.
It will be interesting to see how these teams fair in there next meeting, I for one don’t think the score will be as dramatic as this looks and Malaga certainly left here knowing they had been in a game. A very worthy man of the Match was Mousa Tzunani.

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