Germany did not have a good preparation before the match after being forced to bring in 4 players at the last minute due to others pulling out. Also missing was injured player coach Dan Stocks alongside a couple of others like Nico Koch and Alex Klöpper.
Former captain Leo Berngruber has retired and his influence was missed at 7, although young Liam Doughton tried his best, he does not yet have the experience to lead a team around the field like Berngruber did. This saw a rather weaker team than hoped, travel to Olomouc to compete against the Czechs. The Czechs started off the better of the two teams and the bigger forwards built a solid platform. The German defence held out well with the Keinhorst Brothers, Cooper, Kruse and Reinhold often leading the way. However the Czechs still went over twice in the first 25 minutes to take a 10-0 lead.
Germany made some good individual breaks via Jimmy Keinhorst, Bene Rehm and Nick Keinhorst but for some reason passes were dropped or the ball was knocked on when in promising positions. The game was physical as usual when Germany and the Czechs play and this boiled over once and Czech halfback Jan Buben was sin binned for punching.
Germany felt they had scored when another good run by Rehm saw him put the ball on the line, but the Ref thought otherwise. A couple of further chances were wasted when the ball would have been better getting out wide but stayed in the middle of the field with the forwards. Fullback Dominik Bastian sadly left the field with a bad shoulder injury and the backs needed a bit of reorganizing to fill the void. Just before half time Jimmy Keinhorst knocked off a couple of would be defenders on a 30 metre run to go over close to the posts.
Sadly on a day when things just simply did not work out for the Germans, the chance to add the easy 2 points on offer was missed-which probably summed the day up for Germany. The half time approached and although the first 40 minutes was not very good by the German boys, they only trailed 10-4.
Hopes that the second half would get better were soon dashed, as the Czechs seized on a German mistake and some great passing saw a further try registered. The veteran Simon Cooper then was forced off with a calf injury soon to be followed by Captain Kristian Keinhorst and Jimmy Keinhorst. The Germans were left with no fresh subs and little experience out on the field. But despite this they kept battling away with debutant prop Sebastian Vermaat from Calbach Raccoons having a fine game. The more experienced players in Reinhold, Kruse, Frera, Gabriel, Schöngen and young scrum half Doughton tried hard, but were simply no match for a more experienced and bigger Czech team led well by Captain Michal Priputen. With many players out on the field with not so much experience the Germans made many mistakes and this saw the Czechs have a large share or possession. Each of the Germans who played gave 100% as they never gave in and never got downhearted but it was not enough to stop the Czechs grab further tries. Sadly the score ended 30-4 but that does not really tell the full story of the game that saw Germany missing many key players in key areas.
The youngsters like Huber, Vermaat, Doughton, Riepl would have learnt a lot from this game and never gave in which was one of the positives for trainer Dan Stocks. Another positive was that 15 of the 17 man team are under the age of 26. Germany will regroup and hope that things are better for the difficult game in Hürth against Italy, who could feature with a couple of Professionals on the 18th July.
1.Dominik Bastian (Heidelberg)
2.Max Schöngen (Calbach Raccoons)
3.Nick Keinhorst (German Exiles)
4.Jimmy Keinhorst (German Exiles)
5.Timo Tröst (Kaiserslautern)
6.Kristian Keinhorst (German Exiles-Captain)
7.Liam Doughton (Hürth)
8.Bene Rehm (Heidelberg)
9.Joachim Frera (Frankfurt)
10.Michael Kamml (Bad Reichenhall)
11.Janis Kruse (Heidelberg)
12.Micky Reinhold (Bad Reichenhall)
13.Simon Cooper (Bad Reichenhall)
14.Simon Riepl (Ingolstadt)
15.Sebastian Vermaat (Calbach Raccoons)
16.Christian Gabriel (Nürnberg)
17.Christoph Huber (Bad Reichenhall)
