Saturday’s third and final match at 5pm in the Czech Republic had a mixed start, with the Luxembourg XV taking their time to get into the game.

After ten minutes, Josh Van Zeeland took a penalty kick bringing the score to 3-0. This was complemented with a try by Rhys Williams and conversion by Van Zeeland, 20 minutes later. A few errors saw Luxembourg give away a penalty try but they restored the score gap before half-time with a try by Henry Seale and conversion from Van Zeeland.

During the second-half, Luxembourg deployed a series of stunning moves with Will Penn and Adrian Binder scoring tries within six minutes of one another. The latter was converted by Luc Browne, who replaced Van Zeeland. With the score at 29-7 and, after a few substitutions, the game intensified. Cameron Cullen scored, which was converted by Browne. The last try was scored by Rhys Williams, again converted by Browne, bringing the final score to 43-7.

The victory was welcomed by all after Luxembourg lost the first two games of the tournament, 18-6 to the Czech Republic a week earlier and 22-14 against Poland on the Wednesday before.

Coach Alexandre Benedetti said after the game:

“Finally, a victory for the Luxembourg XV who took a long time to shape up. After two good performances, which did not result in points on the general ranking, Luxembourg finally achieved its goal of a victory against Latvia. A little frustrated at not having been able to close the match earlier but they made a number of tries in the second-half, allowing them to free up, little by little.”