Zagreb – Battai Bulldogok 14-17 (14-17)

On a rainy afternoon in Zagreb two evenly matched sides met. Right  from the kick-off Zagreb put Battai Bulldogs under pressure. From the
resulting 5 meter scrum, Zagreb’s No8 scored unopposed under the posts.
But the guests responded in the same manner and scored quickly after. In the first half lead changed hands several times and the half
ended with guests leading by 3.
Most tries were scored after the team in possession made a mistake, quick turnover and the try was scored.

The only area that was separating the teams was the dominance of Battai in the scrum. Zagreb was having a hard time, often going
backwards and losing the ball.
The second half continued the trend of handling errors. But there were also nice passages of play. Zagreb was trying hard to penetrate through big and heavy Battai forwards and  Battai was having problems in trying to attack through their backs.

Both defenses stood firm and surprisingly there were no scores in the second half. By the end Zagreb threw everything but the kitchen sing
at Bulldogs but they couldn’t get the decisive score. They weren’t helped by Zagreb’s No6 who foolishly threw a punch and got himself a
red card, leaving his teammates one man down with 15 minutes to go.
All in all well fought match with a lot of big hits, tries, suspense and everything else we love in rugby.
If both teams could just cut  down on the errors next time they meet we could have a classic.

Report writen by Tvrtko Zelić

RRC Division II Round IV

Date: 18th Apr 2010
Kick off: 15:00 h
Venue: SRC Rudes, Sosicka bb, Zagreb, Coratia

Referee: Dusan Leskovar (Slovenia)
Assistant referee 1: Hrvoje Bartolic (Croatia)
Assistant referee 2: Danko Rosso (Croatia)
Match Commissioner: Miha Mahkota (Slovenia)