Brussels Barbarians (BBRFC) - Kortrijk

Written by Nicolas Becuwe Thursday, 22 September 2011 07:23

2011 Sunday September the 18th 3pm

After a long summer break and a rather difficult season in the national division 3, the glorious
and mythical Brussels Barbarians were starting a new campaign in the 1st Flemish regional
division. On the Sunday of the World Cup where France largely dominated the Canadians,
most of the Baa-baas were forced to travel by tram to join the field of the Elephant pitch as
result of the celebrations of the no-car day in Brussels.

As repeated many times by their new coach, Arnaud, this place should not be taken in any
case this season. The Baa-baas, with rage in their heart, started the match on a high. Kick off,
pressure by the forwards on the opponent number 10, a drop ball and a try behind the posts by
their center Charlie P. The try was converted. After 1 minute, BBRFC was leading 7-0. Baa-
baas could not start the battle better. The rest of the first half was a succession of attacks from
both sides with no teams really taking the control of the game and both teams having handling
difficulties due to the rain. If Kortrijk was slightly dominating with their forwards, they still
had difficulties breaking the Baa-baas' line. However, after some back and forth between
the two sides of the pitch, Kortrijk finally scored a try and came back to 7-5. The pressure
between both teams increased. One penalty allowed Nick, the new Baa-Baa scrum half, to
find a good line out in Kortrijk's half. From the line out by the Baa-baas, the ball was taken
by the opponent's number 5 who broke through the defensive line and ran to score the visitors'
second try. The try was converted: the visitors were now leading on the scoreboard 12-7. But,
this would not stop the Baa-baas and they came back straight away into the game with some
great work by the backs with Antoine, the leader of the back line, Charlie, Pieter and Paddy;
and a clear improvement at the front of the pack with better scrums and line outs.

The game was rough and after some high tackles, the number 27 of Kortrijk, the so-
called “Bouli”, took a red card just after the start of the second half. This was a clear chance
for the Baa-Baas who could now see a clear opportunity to win the game. With great team
spirit and aggression, the Baa-baas were now clearly dominating the game having one more
player on the pitch. They were winning more and more scrums with the impacts of Matteo
and Fausto, the “props brothers”, and Pierre and Simon, “the French-Irish tractor”, and
finding more gaps with the entrance of Justin on the pitch. But the opponents were not giving
up and were tackling as much as possible. The weather conditions and some bad luck were
preventing them scoring. But after trying to push and push, 5 minutes before the end of time,
Antoine was delivering a good pass to Charlie who made twenty meters running all over their
backs and score in the left corner of the Elephant pitch. 12-12. Baa-baas finally equilised and
according to most of the comments, the draw was a worthy result for this first match of the
season.

The Baa-baas showed today that they were back on track with a great team spirit and a will
to fight. The fact of leading the game for more than 50 minutes and to come back at the end
certainly showed that the team has a real mental strength that was lacking last year and that
could be an important weapon this year. Then the story remained in the “Europa” where we
celebrated the new rugby season. Thanks Kortrijk, you’ve been great, we’ve been the Baa-
baas.

Squad:

1. Matteo; 2. Nico (cap.); 3. Fausto; 4. Pierre; 5. Steve; 6. Simone; 7. Andrew; 8.
Jorge; 9. Nick; 10. Antoine; 12. Charles P.; 13. Pieter; 11. Paddy; 14. Al; 15. Pat.;16. Tashan;
17. Simon; 18. Justin; 19. Tom; 20. Ken; 21. Alex; 22. Bertrand. Coach: Arnaud

Awards:

Man of the match: Charlie P./ Fausto - Dick of the day: Arnaud