Successful weekend for the Dragons!

On Saturday the club had a full day of rugby, with four teams in action and a full training for the kids.

First up in the morning the youngest dragons from 5 to 13 were training, and 30-50 kids are led by President Thomas Lernout every week, with newcomers always welcome.

The U16 and U18 were in action in unison with Aachen in the Netherlands leagues. The U16 won 53-10 against Oemoemenoe, cementing their mid-table place in the Junior Bowl, while the U18 narrowly lost a thrilling game 47-50 in Aachen against table leaders T'gooi, showing they may even soon be at the level of the top division (Cup). Overall joining Aachen in the Dutch leagues has been a brilliant decision by trainer Duy Tran, with a busy playing schedule hugely benefiting the young Dragons.
Also (belated) congratulations to our U18 Dragon Eben Hecker on his nomination for the German 7s U18 team.

In the afternoon came the long-awaited double derby day. The 1s were up-first against Bonn, needing a win to keep last placed Bonn out of distance in last place in Bundesliga 2 West and improve on a 26-26 draw in Bonn.

The Dragons started strongly, regularly breaking tackles in open play and dominating the scrum but poor discipline (again) saw Bonn took the lead with a penalty. Slowly the Dragons relaxed into the new attacking pattern and forwards Benny the tank and Michael 'needs another hair cut' Corbishley smashed through the tight defences to lead at half time 12-3. In the second half the lineout also solidified, and with plenty of ball the Dragons were able to add two tries in 15 minutes through centers Vinnie and Taka to secure the bonus point. Bonn didn't give up though and camped out in Düsseldorf's half for 20 minutes, and although they couldn't break the gain line this came at the cost of two yellow cards, with Bonn's outside centre using the gap to score with the last play of the match to finish 24-10.

Up next were the 2s against Essen, by far the strongest team in the Regionalliga NRW. After multiple hammerings in recent seasons the team put up a great fight. The first half was tight, a try by German keeping things level for the first 30 minutes. Just before half time Essen began to pull away to lead 7-19 at half time and eventually win 14-40, with a try by Ingo close to the end.

A speedy recovery also for the two unfortunate hospital visitors including Düsseldorf's 'tis but a scratch' Philip!

The day was closed out at sponsors Mclaughlins, with the men and womens teams and DJ Toto partying into the late hours.

More photos are available in our gallery.