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Venue, Westlands Rugby Club, the Hague.

 

Weather, Bright, warm, no rain for a while.

 

In attendance, The Hague, Amsterdam, Maastricht, Luxembourg.

 

Situation, First tournament of the year.

 

April and the first tournament of the Benelux tournament 2007 was to be held in the Hague. Standing European Champions The Hague were hopeful of starting off the qualification for the European championship. Training had been going well with some challenge games played against Maastricht and Brussels and the home challenge tournament in The Hague against some Irish teams in February. 

 

The first game was against Luxembourg and we ran out winners setting us up well for the day. The next 2 games against Amsterdam and Maastricht were well contested but we won both to put us into the final against Luxembourg.

 

We had a strong team on the pitch but a small panel meant we couldn’t afford injuries. Starting well we went into the break just a few points down. Unfortunately we had lost Declan Bonner to injury.  Luxembourg’s superior fitness began to tell in the second half and they ran out deserving winners.