Today, on April 29, at the Daugava Stadium, the Latvian national team recognized the superiority of the Czech national team with a score of 7:43.
The teams met within the European Championship Conference 1 North Division 2022/2023 season.
Although the Czech national team is the strongest team in the division, our rugby players started the game very actively. In the 7th minute of the game, after Robert Davidson’s breakthrough, Dimitri Foundoux landed the ball in the visitors’ penalty area and Latvia took the lead with 7-0.
However, the Czech national team recovered relatively quickly and in the continuation of the first half, the battles mostly took place on the Latvian team’s side of the field. It also brought changes as a result. At first, the Czechs had a chance to take a penalty kick, which was accurate. After a while, the ball was also landed in the Latvian national team’s field and the visitors took the lead with a minimum of 7:8.
The end of the first half was very unsuccessful for the Latvian national team. In a few minutes, the Czech rugby players managed to break through the defense of the home team three times (two touchdowns by the player with the number 14 Adam KOBLIC, one touchdown by the player with the number 6 Vlastimil DIVIS) and by the time of the break they were already ahead with 7:29.
In the second half, the game evened out a bit and the teams exchanged dangerous attacks. Latvian rugby players were also several times only a few meters away from the second touchdown, but the Czechs defended effectively and did not allow the home team to bring the ball into their goal area.
The Latvian national team made several player changes, experimenting and trying to break the game, but the Czech rugby players were more successful in the second half as well – two more successful attacks and the difference in the score increased to 7:43.
At the very end of the game, Ivo Kapiņš, playing with the number 11 of the Latvian national team, ended the last attack by landing the ball behind the goal of the Czech national team, however, the referee recorded a violation of the rules and the points were not counted.
Therefore, the final score of the game is 7:43 in favor of the Czech national team.
A week later, on May 6, the Latvian national team will go to Budapest, where they will meet Hungarian rugby players in an away game. This will be the final game of the 2022/2023 season, after which the division of the final places in the tournament table will also be determined.
