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On Sunday Denia Rugby Club travelled to Alicante to play Alicante University, knowing that they had to win to avoid a place in the Relegation Group in the non-sensical League System adopted this season by the Rugby Federation of Valencia. Having beaten Alicante earlier in the season in pouring rain, Denia, with several players missing due to injury and unavailability, knew that, on the hard artificial surface and on a hot sunny day, the home side would be a tough proposition. Alicante, with a young side looked to use their backs whilst Denia, with an experienced pack, were set to keep the ball tight. Alicante had the better of the early exchanges and, from poor defensive alignment, created an overlap and then moved the ball back inside to score under the posts. It was clear that any errors would be punished and this was certainly proved to be the case. After a period of scrappy play in midfield, a quickly taken penalty saw Alicante link well to add a second try for a 14-0 lead. Denia then rallied well, with the ball kept tight. A break from Raul should have been finished by Yovanny, but like many players, he was reluctant to dive on the hard plastic type surface, and was held up over the try line. However, from the ensuing scrum and ruck, Geviny picked up and crashed over to score. Lee added the conversion. The rest of the first half saw the referee dominate proceedings with a series of curious decisions that seems aimed at halting Denia's forward superiority. Late in the half, with Denia on the attack, a kick was charged down and an Alicante player recovered the loose ball for a 70 metre run in and an undeserved 21-7 half time lead. The second half saw Denia dominate both possession and territory, but too often Alicante were able to scramble the ball away. Mid way through the half Denia's forwards powered over for a try from Jerry, also converted by Lee, but either side of this Alicante were able to add two penalties from just inside the Denia half. As Denia again pressured the Alicante line, a loose pass fell kindly for the home side who again outsprinted the Denia defence for a converted try totally against the run of play. The final score of 34-14 did not reflect the game, but Denia will not miss having to play on this dreadful surface again this season. The fact is that this type of surface does not allow a team to either scrummage properly or play a rucking game and the game had to be regularly stopped for visits to the blood bin due to friction burns from the surface, but it is ideal for a young, athletic side looking to play almost a non-contact style of rugby and quick to react to mistakes from the other team. This sunday Denia travel to play a friendly La Vila B at 2pm, after the La Vila A League game against Jaen. The last League game of the first phase for Denia is against La Safor on Saturday 15th December at 4pm. Denia RC: Jerry,Nico,Adam,Dale,Xabia,Richy,Adrian,Geviny,Shaun,Lee,Chimo, Jake,Raul,Charlie, Yovanny,Pato,Dirk,Eddie & Hans.
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