Swedish Championship is a family affair

(Photo: Göteborgs-Posten)

Gothenburgtook a 29-7 lead into the second leg of the Swedish final on Saturday, having win from the first leg away to Stockholm Exiles two weeks ago. The Exiles - with nothing to lose - exerted a lot of pressure at the start, initially knocking Gothernburg off their stride, but by the second half the home team - with the experienced Anna-Lena Swartz alongside Anderson Hall - took control, killing the game off with three quick tries on their way to a 46-10 win, taking the championship by 75-17 overall.

“We want to perform well, that is always what we aim at. We said before that the result does not matter, it's just how we perform, and we played really, really good rugby - especially in the first half”, said Andersson Hall. “I have won five championships with the Exiles before I came here and around ten titles here, if you count both the sevens and fifteens. But they just as fun to win every time. There are new teams and new people every time it is great fun. To build together, as we have done this for years and it's always good. Doing things together.”

The Swedish season runs from May to October, and Gotherburg have performed almost faultlessly throughout, scoring 250 unanswered points in their pool games (including a 61-0 win over Stockholm Exiles) before beating Vanersborg 94-0 over two legs in the semi-final. So the Exiles performance in the final was therefore far more impressive than the score suggests.

However, the most memorable moment for Anderson Hall came perhaps not at the end but rather with after 65 minutes when her niece, Rebecca Larsson, stepped onto the field to make her club debut and allow the two of them to play and celebrate together for the first time.

“We have talked about for many, many, many years. Since "Becka" was about five years old, we have talked about us to playing together," said Anderson Hall. "Until recently it as was "no, now Ulrika is too old, we will never be able to play together," so I had to continue until Rebecca started playing, and now we finally played together and won together”.

For the 17-year-old her first game ended with a Swedish Championship gold medal.

“It feels great. I do not know what to say”, says Larsson, laughing before turning to his aunt and saying “You must not stop now”.

“I'll tell you when I stop!" Anderson Hall replied. "And no, I have no idea when it will be. I have retired every year for the past five years so we will see”, she continued before the duo ran away to their team-mates to continue the celebration.