Reality check for the Dragons

The Rugby Club Essen visited the Dragons and managed to claim the win of this very hard fought game.
In the first half of the game, both teams put their opponent under strong pressure and both defence lines reacted actively with hard tackles and contested rucks. The Dragons seemed to have the upper hand, but the players impatience led them to many handling mistakes and in the end, Essen managed to score three tries but missed the conversions when Düsseldorf only had two converted ones. The score at half time: 14 to 15 points.
In the second half, the Dragons found back their game structure and were clearly dominant in the lineouts and the scrums. But the many knock-ons did not allow them to successfully reach the try line. Although the discipline on the Essen side costed them to lose a player with a red card, the Dragons did not manage to fully take advantage of having one more player on the pitch. With only one successful penalty kick against a try for Essen, the Dragons lost the lead and did not manage to come back.
Congratulations to the Rugby Club Essen for their 17:22 win.
The Düsseldorf players know what they need to work on this week to rectify the situation and try to win next game on Saturday in Solingen against the SG Rheinland.

Thanks to the visit of Manuela and Wolfram Wilms, some very nice photos of the game are available on our website photo gallery.

Our U14 Dragons were also involved in rugby games on Saturday. The Düsseldorf young players travelled to Maastricht to participate in a tournament with players from Köln, Bonn, Aachen and Maastricht.
The Dragons met a well known contender in their first game as they played a mixed team including players from Köln and Bonn. The game ended with a result of 14 for the Dragons and 27 points for the Köln/Bonn team.
In their second game, with the support of a few players from Köln, the Dragons managed to win against the mixed team Aachen/Maastricht.
Congratulations to our young players for this great achievement.

Some photos of this tournament are also available on our website photo gallery.