Well, what a game. We had fun. The Zurich mixed team had fun. Rugby was the winner.

We had a friendly on the Sat, 10 April, against a Zurich mixed team. The final score was 5-17 to the bad guys.

But there is no question that the Baar Panthers team is getting better all the time and, perhaps, the newbie Swiss players don’t need to learn that much from the old ex-pat players of Steve Mac and Chris now.

The whole game Markus, Simon and Cyril, three Swiss guys who hadn’t touched a ball until a couple of years ago, were tearing holes in the opposition, moving the ball up, busting through and causing havoc in their line. Of course Breon and Ian were there too, lending their Brit experience.

Poor Steve, Chris and Ron, all in their forties, were trying to keep up. But, hey, chasing teenagers is hard work for the grey-hair brigade.

The wonderful things that came out of this game were the rucks, and the running and the passing. Many times we busted through their line and pushed them back thirty, forty and fifty meters.

Unfortunately there were moments that showed our lack of experience as a team. There were at least three or four times where if we had made one more pass we would have scored. Alas people got excited, went for the line themselves, got tackled, and the moment was lost.

But the great thing about this was many players were aware of these lost moments without anyone being told. All the players in Baar are really learning the game.

A “special mention” has to go to Breon and Simon for the lineouts. The timing was perfect on the throws and we got lots of ball. There is no doubt the line outs are working really, really well now.

So what to take away from this friendly with Zurich? First, it was tons of fun. Second, the Zurich team was half their 2nds team and half beginners. Considering the score ended up 5-17 to the bad guys, it really shows we are building a fantastic foundation for the future. This is a very respectable score especially considering we were the first to draw blood.

The Baar Panthers continue to get better all the time. The biggest difference was that, perhaps for the first time, we played as a team. A bit more of this and the flood of tries will come.

The highlight of the game was when Sibylle told Chris to put his shirt on at the end of the game. She certainly didn’t tell the Zurich teenagers with rippling muscles and six-packs to put theirs back on.

Points went to;
3 to Cyril for his amazing game in a new position
2 to Breon for his jumping in the line-outs
2 to Simon who did his usual bashing of anyone in front of him, and his line-out throws
2 to Markus who made tons of runs through the opposition forwards and for his awesome try
2 to Ian who worked really well with Cyril in the centers (it would have been 3 if he had passed the ball)