Germany ready for next challenge

After a long break of seven years, Germany has returned to the rugby world with an impressive win over Switzerland with 36-0 last summer. Now it’s time for the second challenge of the fifteens national team. On January 21 the German “Adler“ will face the British Army on home soil in rugby town Heidelberg.

In the last year, the Army Team has faced teams like England Under 20s and the Netherlands. Although the match against the England site was strongly dominated by the Under 20s (41-12), the Army lost with only five points (17-12) in a very strong game against the Dutch girls. We know from these matches that next Saturday the Army will bring a really high standard of rugby for their game against Germany.

The German coaches Alfred Jansen and Markus Trick are looking forward to this opportunity. Without any financial support of the German Rugby Union it’s a big challenge to provide enough training camps for the players and to ensure a regular competition.

Jansen and Trick mainly rely on players from the German “Bundesliga“, but have in addition selected three girls who are playing rugby abroad: Vanessa Hagen who lives in Scotland and plays for Broughton RFC, Alysha Stone from INEF Barcelona and Nora Baltruweit who lived in New Zealand the last 12 months and has made it into the squad of Auckland Storm.

But compared to the last test match against Switzerland, the coaches have to go without eight key players. The lost of six forwards including Marlene Lorenz, Sabine Schubert and Melissa Paul as well as the SC Neuenheim trio Uli Borchardt, Elisa Trick und Monica Yee will be a big loss for the team. Backs coach Jansen is more fortunate with a number of fast and experienced players he can pick from.

It will be an interesting start into the rugby year 2017 for both teams, and for Germany it help them prepare for their next full test, against Belgium in March.

Germany’s team:

Lisa Bohrmann, Anja Czaika, Marlis Gerigk, Steffi Gruber, Leonie Hollstein, Franziska Holpp, Sylvia Kling, Noemi Mager (all SC Neuenheim); Nora Baltruweit, Dana Kleine-Grefe, Lisa Kropp, Julia Peters, Laryssa Stone (all ASV Köln); Anne-Julie Bachmann, Mona Bieringer, Johanna Hacker, Lisa Maral, Susanne Pfisterer (all Heidelberger RK); Ninja Duri, Katrin Vocke (both FC St. Pauli); Mareike Bier, Meike Hedderich (both Eintracht Frankfurt); Simone Otto (SC Germania List); Alysha Stone (INEF Barcelona/Spanien); Josi Pora (LOU Rugby/Frankreich); Vanessa Hagen (Broughton RFC/Scotland)