The last two week-ends, the Dragons faced the players of the neighbour city in two derby games.
On Sunday 19th October, the Dragons travelled to Köln for the first game against the RSV Köln. The Dragons started the game with high intensity and it took them only 6 minutes to find a path to their opponent try line. During the first half, the Köln players applied high pressure to the Dragons defence line, but it did not break. The string commitment of the Dragons in defence and their structured plays in attack allowed them to lead at the end of the first half with a score of 34 – 0.
The second half started with two injuries, one on Köln side and one in the Düsseldorf ranks. We wish a speedy recovery to both injured players. The game continued and despite the effort of the Köln players to resist, the Dragons were the strongest on the pitch and they finished the game with a final score of 70-0.
With only 6 days to rest and prepare for the next game, the Dragons welcomed the same opponents for the second derby game on Saturday 25th October. The weather conditions were tough with a lot of rain and wind, making the game more challenging for both teams. The Dragons started the game with the same strategy and envy and quickly worked with structured attack moves that allowed them to score two tries in the first 10 minutes. The referee sanctioned a Dragon player with a yellow card for an intentional knock-on, but the Dragons kept their composure despite being one player less on the pitch. The Dragons defence was particularly efficient when the Köln players spent more than 5 minutes in the 5 meter zone of the Dragons, trying to find a gap, but were always pushed back and did not manage to score. Motivated by this strong resistance, the Dragons stuck to their game moves and scored again which allowed them to end the first half with a comfortable lead of 36 points to zero. In the second half, it became obvious that both teams started to get tired and had more difficulties controlling the slippery ball, resulting in many lost balls in lineouts and knock-ons. In the end, it is the Dragons that managed the ball better and took advantage of their substitutes players to score additional points and end the game with a score of 67-0.
Congratulations to all the Dragons players involved in this double win with no points taken , to the coaching team for their great work leading to such result and respect to the Köln players who did not give up and fought hard until the end of both games.
Some photos of the second game can be seen on our website photo gallery thanks to the visit of Wolfram Wilms and Manuela Wilms who kindly shared their work with us.
As expected and well deserved, some of the Dragons celebrated properly this double derby win in town at our sponsors, the Irish pub Mc Laughlins and the pub Julio.
Now the Senior men's team has a few training sessions to prepare for the next game which will be against the Rugby Club Bonn-Rhein-Sieg on the 8th November in Bonn.
And for those who can not wait to see some live rugby, don't hesitate to visit the children tournament hosted by the Dragons on Sunday 2nd November. A good opportunity to see our young players in action. players of Köln to play against the mixed team of Aachen and Bonn. The Dragons/Köln team won this very challenging game with some very interesting plays. All in all, this tournament has been a promising start for the rest of the season of the Düsseldorf young players.
