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After the game on July 9th, some of the old boys remarked that they couldn’t remember the last time Lugi had beaten Malmö. A decade. Perhaps more. It’s been a long time and sometimes the force of habit can be tough to break.

Last year, we brought nine players to a game against Malmö. You can imagine how that turned out. In the match earlier this year, our lead was taken from us as the game neared its final whistle. We have come a long way since then. With one exception, everyone who took to the park on Saturday was a permanent resident of Sweden. We beat Malmö, seven tries to one, without the help of our exchange students. That is a phenomenal achievement.

Consistency and hard work at training has recently allowed a lot of players to take a big step-up in their rugby. This was clearly evident on the 9th with everyone playing their part. Rather than go through the game minute-by-minute, I’m going to draw inspiration from the ladies’ match reports, and instead weave the day’s narrative by moving through the stories of the individual lugi lions themselves. I hope that this will give a good indication of the performances that contributed to the win – as well, perhaps, the need in future to respond more quickly as a team.

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If you were to look at Saturday’s scoreline you would be forgiven for thinking Lugi played their best rugby of 2011: “8 to 38. That’s quite a drubbing, isn’t it?” And partly, you would be correct. We dominated possession and took territory when it was available. But it would really only be part of the story. Most of our tries came from the counter-attack, from quick turnovers and speed in the backs. That is to say, the scoreline stands as is thanks to opportunistic rugby. I don’t want to detract from a strong win. Yes, there were moments of individual brilliance, but as a team, we have played better rugby than we did on Saturday.

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