We apologise for being a little bit late in putting this report up on the website. From Friday 18 to Sunday 20 September we were very pleased to have Saracens Community Coaches -  Sam Fulling and James Coles - present in Brussels to organise a "Coach the Coaches" weekend. Special thanks go to Le Meridien Hotel - THE BEST HOTEL in Brussels - for providing their accomodation. In summary, 39 people attended the various weekend coaching sessions over the 3 days: 2 Saracens Community Coaches, 3 BSB Teachers, 8 BSB A-level students,  22 BSB parent coaches and 4 BBRFC coaches. This is the first in a series of courses we plan to organise to improve the standard of our club's playing ability. Read the report on Sarries website: http://www.saracens.com/news/view.php?Id=5549

" At Saracens this season our aim is to Raise The Standard - quite literally. "

Congratulations to our Partner Cub on beating the World Champions at Wembley this week!

After forfeiting against Turnhout, the Second Team rose again and displayed a full XV on the field against Brigandze.

Special thanks to the “old guys” who showed up despite someaches and pains, and a warm welcome to the new forwards.

The Barbarians showed great team spirit and proved to be a team with very high potential.

First Half:

For the first twenty minutes of the match the team struggled to find its own balance.

Five out of eight forwards played their first game of the season and needed some time to get acquainted with each other.

Despite George’s strong guidance, the backs did not find an effective way of attacking and breaking through the opponents’ lines.

Brigandze scored two tries.

After twenty minutes the machine started running and from that moment on, all the forwards played an excellent game. From that moment on, Drazen, Bruno, Steve, Sherpa, the two Nicolas, Taggart,Teodor and Carl won most scrums and lineouts.

Second Half:

Fadi and Patrick joined in the second half. The combination worked fine and the Barbarians scored twice, with Patrick (in great shape) laying the ball down over Brigandze’s try line.

The rest of the match was rather balanced with Brigandze showing more consistence and regularity than the Barbarians. The game ended with Brigandze deservedly winning by 12-25.

At the end of the match some group pictures were taken with prominent "backs" showing off.

 All in all it was a fair game with an excellent turn out andsome very good plays.

 Should the Barbarians keep on performing as they did in the highlights of this game, we can expect great achievements during the second part of the tournament. 

Alexandre Dossat, Marco Migliosi - Captains 

First Half: The game started on a very high tempo for the BaaBaas, with George opening the ball by scoring the first try. His excellent example was followed by Ben, Fadi and Sebastian.

In this first half the Barbarians fight for every ball and some nice moves are carried out by Carl, who is playing as a forward, Nicolas, and by the surprising Cédric who makes a great comeback with the team. In the meantime the two Argentinian bulls (Seb and Jorge) keep on storming through the opposing lines.

Towards the end of the first half the Baabaas’ concentration lessens. A few penalties are given away because of the backs not respecting the 5 meter line and Laakdal 2 catches up by scoring a couple of times.

Second Half: A half-wounded Alex joins in and Sven, the conversion kick specialist leaves his place to Patrick who has just showed up on the field. In order not to get unnoticed Patrick scores a try on his first action.

Laakdal shows more determination during this second half, trying to make good use of its bigger forwards to break through the Baabaas’ line, and occasionally developing a more expansive game by moving the ball around. But the Baabaas resist, make some great tackles and exploit skillfully every turnover ball to create scoring opportunities.

The final result is a massive win for the Baabaas (eighty-something to twenty-something, who cares?) with a very good atmosphere, great sportsmanship, good weather, and a few wonderful supporters cheering up the team.

Very promising for the future, especially if we can recreate the same nice blend of young and more ‘experienced’ players!

Alexandre Dossat, Marco Migliosi - Captains