The Dragons are Champions
They did it! With a solid 50-15 points win, the Dragons are the NRW Regionalliga 2024/2025 season's champions.
The Düsseldorf club was ready to welcome many visitors and more than expected showed up to enjoy the nice weather and the various surprises organised by the host. With so many visitors, this event is clearly the biggest event ever hosted at the Düsseldorf Dragons. Thanks to the army of volunteers that worked the all day, all visitors felt welcome and could enjoy their time at the Dragons' lair.
The day started with the Bronze final to determine who would get the third place of the NRW regional League. SG Rheinland and RC Essen were the two contenders for this position in this game officiated by Dalila Rodrigues. The game was quite intense. Both teams showed a strong will to score points and defend well. But it became quickly clear that one team was stronger than its opponent; The RC Essen quickly took the lead in the game and gave no chance to SG Rheinland to come back. Although SG Rheinland never stopped to fight and actually showed some very good rugby at the end of the game, they did not manage to stop the Essen players who ended the game with a strong 74-5 win.
At half time, the young Düsseldorf Dragons players had the chance to demonstrate their skills in two short exhibition games. Both the U8 and U10 Dragons players were split in two teams and played a 10-minute game. It gave the public the opportunity to discover the talents of the future Dragons generation.
Right after the end of the first game, the two contenders for the championship could start their warm-up. On the Dragons side, it was clear that the squad was fully committed to its objective. Despite the mind games played by their opponents, the Düsseldorf players remained focused on their preparation for their most important game of the season.
The game officiated by Stefano Bolzonella started at 16:00 with a Kick-Off from Wiedenbrück. In the first 10 minutes of the game, Wiedenbrück was really aggressive and put themselves in the position to score a few times. Although the Düsseldorf team was not so well organised, its defense managed to keep their opponents off the try line. The Wiedenrbücker TV had one attempt to the posts after a penalty granted to them, but the kick was missed.
In the next 10 minutes, a different Düsseldorf team started to show. Although a few handling mistakes were made, the Dragons worked better together and started to put some pressure on Wiedenbrück. It paid off at the twentieth minute with a first try from Can Dege.
Six minutes later, Julian Browa had the chance to score a second try for the hosting team, converted by Thomas Evrard. From this moment, the Düsseldorf team found back its core structure and applied the strategy implemented by its coaches, Duy Tran and Stephanie Schwarz. And it worked. The hard work of its forward players gave the team the chance to score a third try, the second for Can Dege.
At half time, the score was of 17-0 for the Dragons.
The break was again used by the young Dragons players to exhibit their rugby. It was the turn of the Dragons U12 players to play a 10-minute game and show that rugby can be played at a young age in front of a large audience
The second half of the game started with a Dragon team even more motivated. The Düsseldorf players took only 6 minutes to find their way to the Wiedenbrücker try zone with a nice try from James French, converted by Thomas Evrard.
When granted a penalty for an offside position of the Dragons, the team of Wiedenbrück decided to attempt the kick and successfully scored their first 3 points. The Dragons answer came quickly with a try from one of its young players, Naoya Mitsugi less than 5 minutes later.
At this point, the game had to be stopped since the main referee injured himself and had to be replaced by one of his assistants, Andrew Fairhurst.
The game resumed and although Wiedenbrück found themselves in the position to score, the solid defense of the Dragons did not let them pass and the team managed to counter and score another try, the third one for Can Dege.
At the 30th minute in the second half, Wiedenbrück finally managed to score its own try and increases its score to 10 points with a successful conversion. The Dragons answered almost immediately with the second try of Julian Browa successfully converted by Thomas Evrard.
In the last 5 minutes of the game, the ball went quickly from one side to the other and both teams managed to each add a try to finally end the game with a score of 50-15.
Congratulations to our Dragons players for this outstanding performance in a game that coach Duy Tran described as the cherry on the cake after such a brilliant season.
After a few minutes given to all players to catch their breath, the NRW Regionalliga trophies were presented to each team. The SG Rheinland received its 4th place trophy from Felix Lammers, player of the Rugby German national team and former Dragon. The 3rd place trophy was presented to the RC Essen by Peter Kersting, the former vice-president of NRW Rugby youth department. The second place trophy was then given to the Wiedenbrücker TV by Franziska Frase, the new president of NRW Rugby. And the Dragons received their winner trophy from the hands of the head of the Sportamt of Düsseldorf city, Mrs Eva Kulot.
From this moment, it was time for the Dragons to celebrate and celebrate they did. The Dragons shared some very nice moments with their families, friends and the many persons who came to support the team until late in the evening. The celebrations continued in the old town, starting at one of the club's sponsors, the Mc Laughlin's Irish pub, followed by a visit to another sponsor of the team, the pub Julio.
Should you wish to revive some memories of this event or discover how it went, many photos are already available on our website in ourPhoto gallery, thanks to the photographers who shared them with us: Manuela Wilms, Wolfram Wilms and Gabriel Boia.
The Dragons would like to thank all of you who supported the team during the season and all the volunteers who made this event possible and, thanks to their hard work, made it a large success.
Special thanks also to Mrs Eva Kulot, Mrs Franziska Frase, Mr Peter Kersting and Mr Felix Lammers for their visit and for making this day special for all players.
The Dragons are looking forward to next season and hope to see you all soon.
