Belgium 29 - 8 Poland
Belgium is not exactly renowned as a great rugby-playing nation. Nor is Poland. Nonetheless, they do both have national teams of a sort, and last Saturday was the culmination of their 2009-10 season: the final match in Division 2A of the European Nations Cup. Gosh, I hear you say.
The European Nations Cup is a sort of sub-Six Nations, divided into seven divisions. Division 1 is made up of teams like Romania and Georgia, which fairly regularly qualify for World Cups (where they then get completely spanked), so Belgium, in Division 2A, are officially almost mediocre :-) The team is known as the Diables Noirs/Zwarte Duivels - the Black Devils - and they do indeed play in black, with little red and yellow stripes.
So, Saturday's match. It was held at the Petit Heyzel stadium, which is a small (capacity around 6000, at a guess) stadium next to the main Stade Roi Baudouin, which itself rose from the metaphorical ashes of the old Heysel stadium (yes, that Heysel). There was a bigger crowd than I'd expected, at around 4500 - mostly Belgian, with a fair contingent of Poles and at least a few neutrals including me and a Greek friend.
And it was a pretty entertaining match. Actual quality of rugby, not brilliant, but there were a couple of tries right beneath our noses and a very amusing punch up involving the majority of both teams. Most of the points were scored by Belgium's fly-half, a chap by the very Belgian name of Alan Williams who plays for Castres and has a very Jonny Wilkinson-esque penalty-kicking style. At the end of the match, there was a mysterious fracas at the other end; we couldn't see what was going on, but I later heard that one of the Belgian supporters had headbutted one of the Polish players. Which seems like a logical response to seeing your team win.
And the upshot of all that was that Belgium finished second in the division, just one point behind Ukraine. Allez les noirs!
Belgium is not exactly renowned as a great rugby-playing nation. Nor is Poland. Nonetheless, they do both have national teams of a sort, and last Saturday was the culmination of their 2009-10 season: the final match in Division 2A of the European Nations Cup. Gosh, I hear you say.
The European Nations Cup is a sort of sub-Six Nations, divided into seven divisions. Division 1 is made up of teams like Romania and Georgia, which fairly regularly qualify for World Cups (where they then get completely spanked), so Belgium, in Division 2A, are officially almost mediocre :-) The team is known as the Diables Noirs/Zwarte Duivels - the Black Devils - and they do indeed play in black, with little red and yellow stripes.
So, Saturday's match. It was held at the Petit Heyzel stadium, which is a small (capacity around 6000, at a guess) stadium next to the main Stade Roi Baudouin, which itself rose from the metaphorical ashes of the old Heysel stadium (yes, that Heysel). There was a bigger crowd than I'd expected, at around 4500 - mostly Belgian, with a fair contingent of Poles and at least a few neutrals including me and a Greek friend.
And it was a pretty entertaining match. Actual quality of rugby, not brilliant, but there were a couple of tries right beneath our noses and a very amusing punch up involving the majority of both teams. Most of the points were scored by Belgium's fly-half, a chap by the very Belgian name of Alan Williams who plays for Castres and has a very Jonny Wilkinson-esque penalty-kicking style. At the end of the match, there was a mysterious fracas at the other end; we couldn't see what was going on, but I later heard that one of the Belgian supporters had headbutted one of the Polish players. Which seems like a logical response to seeing your team win.
And the upshot of all that was that Belgium finished second in the division, just one point behind Ukraine. Allez les noirs!
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