#GameRecap: IE Rugby Segovia
The IE Rugby Segovia team has just started a new season in January. Expectations are high this season following their previous ‘crushing’ victory against Universidad Francisco Vitoria of 79-0.
On February 20th, the team played against the Madrid Lions for the first exhibition match of the season. IE Rugby Segovia lost the match, ending with a final score of 40-14 which was well deserved according to the coach, Dan Bloch.
“The most important thing is people were out there on the field getting minutes under their legs, just getting back into the swing of things, and shaking off the Christmas turkey," Bloch said.
Another issue with the ‘out of practice’ team was their lack of focus during the first minutes of the match.
“[The game] showed us that we definitely have to work on our focus and make sure we start playing at minute 1, and not after 20 minutes,” said captain Salvador Braedt. “Nonetheless, during the periods we were attentive, we were playing quick, aggressive, attacking rugby, aided mostly by Jules, our Gazelle, and Sam, our Bulldozer.”
In this occasion ‘Sam the Bulldozer’, aka Samuel Blanchard, was voted man of the match after scoring 2 tries, nevertheless he found areas where the team could have improved.
“We were not organised enough, there was not enough communication,” said Blanchard.
Yet, the team is not discouraged, and they are excited about their future matches.
“We are looking forward to gaining experience from these games so as to beat [ICADE] in arguably the most important match of the season” said Braedt.
Last Friday 26th, IE Rugby Segovia went on to defeat their old rivals, ICADE, in Madrid 19-12. With tries being scored by Jules Vanthournout, Ernst von Puttkamer, and Nika Chikvaidze. Verus von Haeften was voted man of the match.
Another highlight of the match was the debut of Andrew Doran, an Irish exchange student, scoring 2 conversions and receiving a special mention after the match.
The team has a lot to look forward to this season, with an upcoming game in Pamplona this weekend and a potential fixture against a Prison in the Madrid area which is still being organised.
In a final statement, Braedt mentioned his sentiments towards the team:
“We are a bunch of great guys that are growing together in the light of rugby, and thanks to people like our coach Dan, we are slowly establishing quite a rugby culture at this university, and hope that the younger players in the team can take this legacy and carry it on.”
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