Tournament Reports

29th May 2016 -

Lac Leman Cup Round 1 ( 3 games)

Game 1

Never before in Switzerland has there been an offical touch rugby competition, between two cantons, fighting for the one trophy. The Lac Leman Cup has been created for both clubs Geneva Eagles and Lausanne Lakers to bring competition locally, and also to help promote this ever fast growing paced game around Switzerland.

With the Lakers hosting this round in Dorigny, the weather held off perfectly, with cool overcast conditions, perfect for working up a sweat.

Touch Switzerland provided two level 2 referee's to help with the games and also with assessing new referee candidates. The first game tapped off, and the Lac Leman Cup was underway. The first 3-4 minutes both sides were just getting a feel for each other and analysing the types of structures and plays each team had up their sleeve. Lakers took an early advantage and scored first. Lakers then backed it up with 2 quick consecutive tries not long after and scored just on the siren to take a healthy 4-0 lead at half time. The second half didn't prove to be as easy. The Eagles come out guns blazing and should of scored a few more times but lacked the ball control. They hit back early in the second half to be down 4-1 but poor ball control didn't allow them to get any closer. The Lakers took the first game out 6-1.

The eagles came out firing, going toe to toe with the Lakers all the way up to half time. The eagles improved their ball control and were completing more sets. They took the lead 3-2 at half time and were threatening Lakers line frequently. Lakers came out in the second half and changed up their attack. Geneva once again stuck with them, and hit the lead 4-3 with about 6 minutes to go. Lakers altered their defence on the line a bit and come home strong to just beat the Eagles and take a 2 game advantage winning 6-4.

As the day went on, the Eagles were improving more and more. The third game the Eagles scored on their first set and put their stamp down to lead 1-0. That momentum didn't stop. The Eagles pressured the Lakers in defence and now the Lakers were making poor decisions and ball handling mistakes. The eagles capitilised on this and went into half time with not only the momentum but a handy 3-1 lead. Their biggest lead of the day. Straight after the 2nd half, Eagles took an intercept and shot to a further lead 4-1. The Lakers for the first time on the day were on the back foot and needed some luck. 4-1 down, it was time to focus on the 1%'s and get the little things right, and in true lakers style they came back to even the scored 4-4 with 2 minutes to go. Eagles took the tap off and put the ball down on the 2nd touch. Lakers swoopped in on the opportunity and scored right on the bell to go 3-0 up in the series with a very tight 5-4 win over the Eagles. The games were played in very high spirit and the Lakers are very much aware that the Eagles will definitely bounce back for round 2. Come down and watch and support your Canton. Details will be posted on this website shortly. Round 2 will be July 26th at Etoy.

Game 3

Game 2

June 11th 2016 -

German Cup - Cologne

Beautiful location, beautiful day, and awesome crowd is what made up the Cologne Cup. After a staggering 10 hour bus trip, we finally arrived and got about 3 hours sleep before the big day....not probably the ideal preparation but it had to do. After setting up our tent, getting our food pack, we were first up against one of the new German teams. We started off a bit slow but found our feet and controlled the whole game quite well. We took the first of 3 pool games out 7-0. The second game, we were up against a very strong Netherlands side. After the first 5 minutes we found ourselves behind 3-0. They shocked us with their speed and after giving such a big lead it was just too hard over a 20 minute to try and peg that lead back. We fought hard but went down 6-3. It was a shock to the system, but sometimes a loss is a good thing. We sat down, reflected on the game and set objectives to achieve to ensure we got through to the finals by winning the next game. Frankfurt was our last game and it was pretty much do or die for the rest of the day. Frankfurt came out defending hard, and we found a few gaps early, but they adjusted well and the score was 2-0 our way for a long time in the game. We made a few changes ourselves and ended up winning comfortably 5-1. Now it was time for quarter finals. Our first quarter final saw us against the Phantoms, a London team. They knew the game well and came first in their pool. We continued with our good form from Frankfurt and controlled the game reasonably well. We ended up winning comfortably in the quarter final 6-3. This put us into the Semi Final. We were one game off, from having a chance of taking the whole tournament out. We still needed to improve in a few areas and it was time to apply that now. The semi final saw us up against a very strong Berlin team. Berlin entering two very strong teams and both of them were still alive in the semi-finals, we knew this was going to be tough. We started the game off strong, and hit the lead early. But Berlin went toe to toe with us. 3-3 at half time, we knew we had the momentum, we just needed to stick to our structures and capitilise when they made an error. We had to get the 1%'s right. We scored immediatley after half time and the momentum swung again. We held them out and got two points lead on them. From there we just controlled the game. It was by far one of our best games of the day. After our morning hiccup and loss, we had bounced back and given ourselves a chance to take the title. Berlin Red had beaten the very strong Netherlands side and were our opponents for the final. Unfortunately we had 1 inury to one of main players and another injury which saw our other middle out for the final. This meant having to play with 4-5 girls on the pitch in the final. Playing against a very well drilled and skilled side, we were too short on man power in the final to ever really be in the game. We had opportunities for the momentum swing, but fitness costs us in the end. Berlin won convincingly 6-2 and were well deserved winners. Well done to the Lakers, it was a super galant effort and the level of improvement throughout the day was tremendous.

The bus trip was one of the funniest trips ever, and we finally have "2" versions of the club song now...it amazing what you can achieve with 6 hours on the autobahn!!

Super effort guys, lets keep the fun and enjoyment up, and lets get ready for Munich and Frankfurt as well.

Swisslakers - Runners Up Cologne June 2016