GC 2 kicked off the game and immediately applied pressure to the guests. In an attempt to relieve pressure, Avusy kicked the ball out of their half straight into the hands of Nello, who quickly passed it on to Fullback Noel. Noel then weaved his way through 4 defenders and scored right under the posts within the first minute of the game. Conversion was good. 7-0

15 minutes later, a well-worked GC set piece led to a try, which was quickly disallowed because of a forward pass in the build up play. A couple of minutes later, a lovely kick from Rico set Zurich up for a lineout on the 5m line. A well-executed set piece and a lovely offload from Mateusz led to Oli putting the ball down for GC’s second try of the game. Conversion missed. 12-0

After a long, heavy phase of set pieces from both sides, a Zurich lineout on the half-way line resulted in a beautiful try in the opposite corner: a skilful backs move led to Oli making an initial line break. Oli offloaded the ball to danger man Noel, who slipped away from 2 defenders. Conversion missed. 17-0

Half-time came with a decent lead from Zurich, with the Romandie team continuously trying to steamroll their way over the line. However, strong tackles and good structure kept a clean sheet for GC in the first half.

A bit of pressure from the Second half kick-off from Avusy led to an overload on the wing. However, an unfortunately dropped ball was quickly kicked up the pitch by Rico, who calmly nudged it a couple more times before scoring a solo try under the posts. Conversion was good. 24-0

The next 10 minutes of the game remained scoreless, with a lot of pressure from Avusy being matched by clean defensive work from GC. However, a strong turnover from the guests on the 22m line set up a dangerous platform for their big forwards. Many phases later, the grinding attack created a mismatched situation on the wing, where the number 8 was able to straighten his run against a drifting defence to score their only try of the day. Conversion missed. 24-5

Again, the Avusy side played in our half for longer than we wanted, but rigorous defensive work denied any hopes of points for the guests. Then, a big hit from Rico in the midfield caused a dropped ball, which was kicked down the pitch by Darius. Darius recovered the ball inside the 5m line, and quick-thinking Basile used a simple draw and pass to put Louis over the line. Conversion was good. 31-5

It was becoming clear that the guests didn’t have that much gas left in the tanks, as larger gaps opened up for Zurich to attack. On his own 22m line, Noel straightened his line and exploded during a gap in the Avusy defensive line. The last defender had no chance to catch him and Noel scored under the posts. Conversion was good. 38-5

A period of clean GC phase play set the platform for the next attack. A well-placed chip from Nello was recovered by Darius in front of the try line, who was able to stretch out and score the try. Conversion was good. 45-5

In the last play of the game, a gap opened up for Nello, who took one defender with him and offloaded the ball to Oli, who powered through and beat the last wave of defence with a perfect pop-pass to Basile, who ran 40m and put the ball down under the posts. Conversion was good. Final score: 52-5

Overall, GC dominated the game and their superior level of fitness in the final 10 minutes led to a lot of points. Credit to Avusy, they spent a fair amount of time in the home team’s half and had some big forward carries throughout the game.