Germany at the 2010–12 European Nations Cup

Germany at the 2010–12 European Nations Cup saw a return of the German national rugby union team to the ENC Second Division, having been relegated without a win from the First Division in 2008–10. The renaming of division within the ENC however meant, that the former Second Division is now named First Division B. The team struggled in the first half of the competition, only winning one of their five games but improved in the second half, when it won three games, to finish fourth overall and well clear of relegation.

Germany
2010-12 season
Head coachTorsten Schippe
ChairmanClaus-Peter Bach (-July 2011)
Ralph Götz (July 2011-)
ENC First Division-B4th
Top try scorerLeague: Kasten (6)
All: Kasten (6)
Top points scorerLeague: Heimpel (46)
All: Heimpel (65)
← 2008–10 2012-14 →

Germany faced Belgium, Czech Republic, Moldova, Poland and the Netherlands in a competition that had been enlarged from five to six teams.[1] Germany kicked off its campaign on 20 November 2010, when they played and lost to Poland in Frankfurt am Main, followed by a game against the Netherlands a week later in Amsterdam. The next matches were then played in March and April 2011, when Germany met the remaining three teams.[2] Germany's first game of the autumn campaign in 2011 was against the Netherlands on 12 November 2011, followed by an away game in Poland a week later. The final three games of the competition for Germany were then played in March 2012.

Germany also played, like in the previous year, a friendly against Hong Kong, on 11 December 2010 at Heidelberg.[3]

With the final game against Moldova, Germany's captain Alexander Widiker played his 51st game for his country, thereby equaling Horst Kemmling's record.[4]

Games

Germany suffered a defeat in its opening game of the 2010–2012 European Nations Cup First Division, losing to Poland 17-22 after leading 17-9 at half time. The defeat was seen as unnecessary by the president of the German Rugby Federation, Claus-Peter Bach, but he also considered Poland's victory as deserved. Germany went into the match with a new coach and assistant, a new captain, Alexander Widiker and five uncapped players.[5]

Germany finally achieved its first win in the ENC since 26 April 2008, when it beat the Netherlands in Amsterdam on 27 November 2010. Its last victory in the European competition had come at the same place against the same opposition, just over 31 months earlier.[6] It also won the following game, a friendly against Hong Kong, cementing its position as number 30 in the rugby world ranking.[7] A loss in this game could have meant for Germany a drop as far as to position 37 in the ranking, instead, the country managed to cut down its deficit to 29th placed Ukraine.[8]

Germany began its 2011 spring campaign with an unofficial friendly[9] against a New Zealand Ambassadors XV, made up almost exclusively of players from New Zealand which are active in Germany and the Netherlands. The New Zealand embassy in Germany donated a cup for this match, the Ambassadors Cup.[10]

The first competitive game of 2011, against the Czech Republic in Heidelberg, brought a disappointing 23-29 defeat for the German team. Germany lost the game in the first half, after which the Czech Republic lead 26-13.[11]

The German team continued its 2011 campaign with a third defeat in the third game, against Belgium in Brussels. Belgium lead 28-13 after 59 minutes but Germany clawed back to earn a bonus point in its 25-28 defeat.[12] The fifth game of Germany's ENC campaign also ended in defeat, this time in Moldova, ending all German hopes for promotion and instead condemning the team to struggle against relegation.[13]

In an attempt to improve the performance of the team it was decided to have weekly training sessions for the members of the national team, held at different locations.[14] Germany started with an improved performance in its 2011 autumn campaign, defeating the New Zealand Ambassadors XV 19–17 despite fielding a number of uncapped players, a side it had lost to 19–43 eight month earlier.[15]

The German team nominated eight new, uncapped players for the encounter against the Netherlands on 12 November 2011,[16] which the team won 23–7, thereby making a major step towards avoiding relegation.[17]

In its second game of the 2011 autumn campaign, away against Poland, Germany took an 8–0 lead after 14 minutes but did not score another point after that. Poland scored 34 points after that of which 26 were scored by the Polish No 15, David Chartier.[18]

Germany played three games in three weeks in March 2012 and showed signs of improvement. It won 20-17 away at the Czech Republic, narrowly lost by a point at home to eventual champions Belgium and won its final match, against Moldova, 40-7. Germany played strong first halves in their first two games but was lucky to hang on to its lead in the Czech Republic while,[19] against Belgium, a half time lead of 22-9 was not enough to win the game.[20] In the last game, Germany played its best performance of the campaign while Moldova displayed a weak side.[21]

Management & coaching

After the resignation of Rudolf Finsterer after the final game of the 2008-10 campaign, Bruno Stolorz, under the supervision of Peter Ianusevici, Germany's Director of Rugby, remained in charge of the German team. A final decision on the position was scheduled to be made in a meeting of board of the German Rugby Federation in May 2010 in Hanover.[22] However, no new German coach was announced until July 2010. On 11 July 2010, Torsten Schippe was introduced as the new German coach,[2] with South African Jakobus Potgieter as Schippe's assistant.[23] Schippe had been coach of Germany once before, leading the team from 2000 to 2001.

Mustafa Güngör, who served as the captain of the German team since December 2009[24] was replaced by Alexander Widiker before the first match of the campaign. Pieter Jordaan was also confirmed as the new vice-captain of the German team.[5]

Debuts and retirements

Four players made their debut in Germany's first game of the campaign, against Poland, those being Arthur Zeiler, Sven Wetzel, Tim Menzel and James Keinhorst. Two more uncapped players, vice-captain Pieter Jordaan, who missed the game due to injury but hoped to play in the following game against the Netherlands and Dustin Eaton, who was part of the wider squad but not selected for the game, were originally also part of the squad.[5]

With Jordaan in the starting line-up against the Netherlands as well as Sam Henderson, Germany fielded two more debutants in its second ENC game. Jordaan however was injured just before kick-off, during the warm-up, and had to be substituted. Nico Kanning was part of the squad as a substitute, being the third uncapped player in the line-up, and was substituted in during the game, receiving his first cap.[25]

In the friendly against Hong Kong, Bastian Himmer made his debut and scored his first international try, while another debutant, Jannis Läpple, came on as a substitute.

Daniel Armitage made his debut for Germany against the Czech Republic in the first competitive game of 2011.

After a number of failed attempts, Pieter Jordaan finally made his debut for Germany against Belgium, where he scored two tries but was unable to prevent another defeat.[12] In the game against Moldova, Gilles Valette and Felix Bayer made their debut for Germany.[13]

For its first game of the return round of the ENC in November 2011 against the Netherlands, Germany nominated eight uncapped players, those being Rob May, Sean Armstrong, Callum Sauer, Olivier Galli, Raynor Parkinson, Guillaume Kasdorf, Mika Tyumenev und Stéphane Kohler.[26] Of those, Kohler, Sauer, May, Armstrong, Parkinson and Galli were in the starting line-up while Kasdorf and Tyumenev were not fielded in the game.[17]

Mika Tyumenev and Carlos Soteras-Merz made their debut for Germany against Poland in November 2011.[18]

In the first game in March 2012, Benjamin Strappazon and Kieran Manawatu made their debut for Germany, while Chris Hilsenbeck made his in the second game and was the last player to make his debut in this campaign.

Table

The final table:

Promoted to Division 1A
Relegated for 2012–2014
Place Nation Games Points Table
points
played won drawn lost for against difference
1 Belgium10901303149+15439
2 Poland10613238189+4931
3 Moldova10514194211-1726
4 Germany10406229212+1722
5 Czech Republic10406160217-5720
6 Netherlands10109153299-1466

Games

Friendlies

The two games against the New Zealand Ambassadors XV are not official international tests, no caps were awarded and matches were not counted in statistics[9]

ENC matches

Player statistics

Squad

The following players are part of the German team during its 2010-12 campaign:[27][28]

  • Clubs listed are the club or clubs a player played for while playing for Germany in 2010-12, not current club.

Games

The following players have been selected for Germany from 2010 to 2012 in the country's European Nation Cup campaign and in friendlies:

Player Caps 2010 2011 2012
Pol Ned HK Cze Bel Mol Ned Pol Cze Bel Mol
Benjamin Krause 46 17 1 1 16 1 16 1 16 1
Alexander Widiker 50 2 (c) 2 (c) 2 (c) 2 (c) 2 (c) 1 (c) 2 (c) 2 (c) 2 (c) 2 (c) 2 (c)
Stéphane Kohler 3 3 3 3
Callum Sauer 5 4 5 4 4 4
Daniel Armitage 7 4 4 4 5 5 5 5
Tim Kasten 33 8 8 8 8 6 8 6 6 6 6
Kehoma Brenner 21 6 6 6 7 6 18 6 19 19 7
Rob May 5 8 8 8 8 8
Sean Armstrong 5 9 9 9 9 9
Christoper Hilsenbeck 2 10 10
Marten Strauch 15 14 12 11 11 22 11 11
Lars Eckert 25 12 12 12
Mark Sztyndera 7 21 20 13
Mustafa Güngör 42 9 22 20 15 11 15 15 14 14 14
Kieran Manawatu 3 15 15 15
Arthur Zeiler 9 1 16 16 1 3 16 1 17 17 16
Patrick Schliwa 6 16 3 3 3 22 16 17
Benjamin Danso 17 17 18 18 18 18
Anjo Buckman 7 13 12 21 12 12 20 19
Matthieu Franke 16 14 14 11 21 20 20
Fabian Heimpel 10 10 10 10 10 10 20 10 21 21
Tim Menzel 7 21 9 9 9 9 9 21 22 22 22 22
Benjamin Strappazon 2 1 1
Damien Tussac 7 3 3 3
Alexander Hauck 14 7 5 7 5 7 7 7 7 7
Clemens von Grumbkow 31 13 13
Bastian Himmer 5 14 22 14 14 11
Gilles Pagnon 8 12 14 13 13 13 13
Tim Coly 36 16
Robert Mohr 8 4
Raynor Parkinson 2 10 10
Raphael Pyrasch 11 20 20 21 19 11
Olivier Galli 2 13 13
Mika Tyumenev 1 20 17
Manuel Wilhelm 33 19
Carlos Soteras-Merz 1 21
Pieter Jordaan 3 12 10 12
Gilles Valette 1 2
Felix Bayer 1 3
Alexander Hug 13 6 19 4 18 19 5
Steffen Liebig 4 22 22 15 22 20 14
Guillaume Franke 3 15 21 15
Sven Wetzel 4 18 17 17 17 16 17
Jannis Läpple 2 19 19 18 18
Lukas Hinds-Johnson 6 19 18 19
Benjamin Simm 21 11 11 13 12 11
Nico Kanning 2 18 17
Jens Schmidt 41 4 4 5
Sam Henderson 2 7 7
Michael Poppmeier 5 5
James Keinhorst 2 15 15
Kieron Davies 34 20
  • Bold numbers indicate player played in the game.
  • Italics indicates did not play.
  • denotes substituted off.
  • denotes substituted on.
  • (c) denotes captain.
  • denotes sin bin.
  • Germany had only 21 players available for the game against the Netherlands on 27 November 2010, because Pieter Jordaan injured himself during the warm-up.[25]

Scorers

ENC

Friendlies

Matches against the New Zealand Ambassadors XV not included

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References
  1. 2010-12 Schema ENC FIRA-AER website, published: 5 February 2010, accessed: 6 May 2010
  2. Torsten Schippe wird Trainer des 15er-Nationalteams (in German) Rugby-Journal, published: 11 July 2010, accessed: 26 July 2010
  3. IRB gibt Okay für Spiel gegen Hongkong (in German) Rugby-Journal, published: 8 September 2010, accessed: 17 September 2010
  4. Rekord für Snakko (in German) DRV website, accessed: 7 April 2012
  5. DRV XV: Unnötige Auftaktniederlage gegen Polen (in German) Rugby-Journal, published: 21 November 2010, accessed: 21 November 2010
  6. DRV XV: Verdienter Sieg in Amsterdam (in German) Rugby-Journal, published: 28 November 2010, accessed: 28 November 2010
  7. Deutschland besiegt Hongkong mit 34:13 (in German) Rugby-Journal, published: 11 December 2010, accessed: 12 December 2010
  8. Hong Kong aim for big rise in rankings Archived 2010-12-14 at the Wayback Machine IRB website, published: 10 December 2010, accessed: 12 December 2010
  9. Match report Germany vs. New Zealand Ambassadors XV (in German) DRV website, accessed: 8 March 2011
  10. International News (in German) DRV website, accessed: 15 February 2011
  11. Match report Germany vs. Czech Republic (in German) DRV website, accessed: 20 March 2011
  12. Match report Belgium vs. Germany (in German) DRV website, accessed: 20 March 2011
  13. Match report Moldova vs. Germany (in German) DRV website, accessed: 2 April 2011
  14. DRV XV: Wöchentliche Trainings für die Nationalmannschaft (in German) totalrugby.de, published: 10 August 2011, accessed: 21 August 2011
  15. Testspiel 15er (in German) DRV website, published: November 2011, accessed: 9 November 2011
  16. ENC: Kader nominiert (in German) DRV website, published: November 2011, accessed: 9 November 2011
  17. Germany versus Netherlands game report (in German) DRV website, accessed: 12 November 2011
  18. Poland versus Germany game report (in German) DRV website, accessed: 28 November 2011
  19. Deutsche Rugby-Herren holen knappen Sieg in Tschechien (in German) totalrugby.de, published: 10 March 2012, accessed: 6 April 2012
  20. Deutsche XV unterliegt Belgien erneut knapp (in German) totalrugby.de, published: 17 March 2012, accessed: 6 April 2012
  21. Germany - Moldavia game report (in German) totalrugby.de, published: 24 March 2012, accessed: 6 April 2012
  22. Deutschland steigt ab / Finsterer tritt zurück (in German) Rugby-Journal, published: 20 March 2010, accessed: 20 March 2010
  23. Kobus Potgieter neuer Co-Trainer der Nationalmannschaft (in German) Rugby-Journal, published: 16 July 2010, accessed: 26 July 2010
  24. Güngör neuer Kapitän der National-XV (in German) Rugby-Journal, published: 8 December 2009, accessed: 24 March 2010
  25. Verdienter Sieg in Amsterdam (in German) Rugby-Journal, published: 27 November 2010, accessed: 29 November 2010
  26. Heidelberg - ENC-Heimspiel gegen Niederlande: Nationaltrainer Schippe nominiert acht Neue (in German) mrn-news.de, published: 7 November 2011, accessed: 10 November 2011
  27. DRV-Kader für Spiel gegen Polen nominiert (in German) Rugby-Journal, published: 19 November 2010, accessed: 21 November 2010
  28. ENC Division 1B 2010-2012 - Mannschaftskader Deutschland (in German) totalrugby.de, accessed: 21 November 2010
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