Baltic XL / Livonia triumphed for the second year in a row at the Latvian Rugby Championship-7 / Day
The title defenders, Baltic XL/Livonia, showing a convincing performance, two and a half weeks ago, on May 1, in Baldone, winning the first round of the Latvian Championship in rugby-7 men, played in an interesting final with a 28:17 playing masterful and persistent home teams.
If eight teams from Latvia started in the first stage, this time seven teams participated. Livonia started again with two teams, with the second team AB Solutions/Livonia. This time there was a shortage of Jurmala, but one team was from Lithuania-our neighboring country for the U18 team, who played a week ago in the strong Siauliai Rugby-7 tournament and who started out of competition. With third place in the international rugby tournament in Siauliai, the Livonians showed that in the second round they will be favorites.
Baltic XL/Livonia won their group and met with the « butchers » in the semi -finals, who were third in the second group as they conceded to Baldone and Lithuania’s U18, but as the young Lithuanians started out of competition, the Latvian Rugby Club was further. This time the semi -finals came yet equal than the last time, winning the Livonians again. Only Baltic XL/Livonia scored the points in the first half, leading a 5-0 lead after one touchdown after the first seven minutes. In the second half, both teams scored a touchdown, but the butchers were also accurate, so the final score of 10: 0 for the first team of Livonia’s first team.
The second semi-final game was not that interesting, as the winners of the group « Baldone », who just barely beat the Lithuanian U18 team, thanks to the accurate realization of Captain Elmar Shefanovsky from a tough position in the game at the end of the game, beat « Phoenix ». in the semi -finals. As a result, the homeowners secured a meeting again with Baltic XL/Livonia.
The second place in the second place for the first place among the champions of the last two years turned out to be tense and emotional. After the start of the game, the Livonians gained the lead and finished halftime 21-7. At the beginning of the second half, Baldone tried to « get caught » in the game, occasionally broke out, but in the final seconds of the game the match referee had to pull the red and yellow card out of his pocket. Baltic XL/Livonia celebrated victory with 28-17 (21-7) in the tight final, thus winning the second round with the same result.
Baltic XL/ Livonia won both stages of the Latvian Championship and protected titles. Baldone won silver in the overall standings, but bronze was « Butchers », who played third place with a convincing 49-0 (20-0) winning « Phoenix » and who was in third place in both stages.
Captain Miķelis Jurevičs, Ivo Kapiņš, Bruno Osītis, Rihards Pluškevics, Ruslan Sosnar, Janek Tashkan, Jack Tatu, Gleb Vorobyov, Vigo Valdavs, David Zhider, David Zhidel, Reinis Pepa, were played in the Baltic XL/ Livonia.
AB Solutions/Livonia failed with the group because they were with very strong teams, with three losses and finished seventh.
Baldone and Latvian national team leader Elmārs Šefanovskis became the top scorer of the tournament.
