2018/CW25 SwissCup - Round 2

On this sunny Sunday, 8 Swiss teams met in Bern to compete for the second round of the Swiss Cup 2018. The bar was set up and the grill was ready to go before the first whistle was blown. The teams arrived one by one, everyone was in a good mood and excited for a full day of touch.

In pool A, Touch Rugby Bern, PWP Egg, Geezers Blue and Geneva battled it out for a spot in the semi-finals. Geneva only had 5 players and had to borrow players from other teams to be able to play, which meant that no matter the score, they had to forfeit the game either way. With that said, they played very well and gave all the teams a run for their money. Geezers blue, the „B-team“ showed why the Geezers are the dominating club in Switzerland. Even the less experienced team is full of talents and showed great improvement over the course of the tournament. The two teams that qualified for the semi-finals were PWP Egg and Touch Rugby Bern. PWP Egg have worked hard since Lausanne and showed great skill and teamplay. Touch Rugby Bern confirmed their performance from the last Swiss Cup and won all of their games. They seem to have established themselves as a strong contender for the title, as not many are left surprised that the „newbies“ from the capital show great promise after just having joined the league this year.

Pool B consisted of the winner of the Swiss Cup in Lausanne, the Geezers, the reigning Swiss Cup champions of 2017, the Swiss Lakers, the Baden Banditos and the Zug Cherry Pickers. No one was really surprised that the Geezers kept dominating, even though they were nearly stopped by a strong Lakers team in a very forth and back game. The Lakers showed that they have integrated their new players well. It was obvious that these two teams have benefited a lot from their participation at the Capital Cup in Berlin. The Baden Banditos, who only brought 8 players, defended their hearts out and improved a lot throughout the day. There is no doubt that this talented team will be back to contest for the top spots, especially at their home tournament in august. Zug, as usual, played a very free flow style of touch. It is always great to watch how these rugby players keep the ball alive with switches and long passes all over the field.

After a short lunch break, the playoffs started. In the lower half of the bracket Zug and the Banditos emerged victorious and engaged in a very close game to determine who would take the 5th place. The Banditos barely won by 1 Touchdown difference to cement their 4th place in the overall ranking.

In the semi-finals, the Geezers won convincingly 4-0 against Egg and the Lakers snatched a close win against Bern to make up for the loss in Lausanne.

Afterwards, it was time for the 3rd place match. Egg was determined to beat the home team after having lost to them in the pool games. The game was very close and Egg almost made a miraculous comeback in the second half, but it just wasn’t enough in the end and Bern took the third place.

The grand final between the two oldest touch-clubs in Switzerland promised to be a great one. The Geezers got a chance to take revenge for the loss of the Swiss Cup last year and came out, guns blazing and dominated the first half. In the second half, the Lakers were much more composed and scored on a few very well executed moves, but it wasn’t enough to bring home the win. In the end, the Geezers extend their lead in the ranking and are the team to beat until the end of the season.

all results >> ALMANAC | SwissCup 2018 <<