Finland v Luxembourg Game Video

Helsinki’s Myllypuro Urheilupuisto played host to the opening game of the European Nations Cup Division 2D with Finland taking on Luxembourg. Despite the recent heavy rain across Finland in recent weeks, the rugby gods intervened on the day to provide beautiful conditions. 

 

Given that Luxembourg and Finland are the bottom two teams in the IRB world rankings (95^th and 96^th respectively), this was seen as a golden opportunity to get new international season off to a winning start. Unfortunately it was not to be on the day. Despite a heroic second half performance by the home side, Luxembourg hung on to edge a 14-16 victory.

The match can be viewed using this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKRFkWYsjc8

Finland:

1. Juha Rainvuori (Warriors RC)

2. Semu Salmivalli (C) (Eagles RFC)

3. Riku Ryynänen (France)

4. Dawie Van Der Walt (Tampere RC)

5. Fred Harrison (Tampere RC)

6. Ari Tikkanen (Jyväskylä RC)

7. Aaro Katainen (Jyväskylä RC)

8. Mikael Ahola (UK)

9. Mikko Moilanen (Helsinki RC)

10. Mikko Luopio (Tampere RC)

11. Valtteri Valtia (Warriors RC)

12. Antti Lammi (Warriors RC)

13. Thomas Finell (Warriors RC)

14. Lasse Sariola (Warriors RC)

15. Ilkka Tuomaala (Eagles RFC)

16. Janne Heinnänen (Jyväskylä RC)

17. Tatu Rantakokko (Eagles RFC)

18. Andras Devenyi (Helsinki RC)

19. Stephen Whittaker (Helsinki RC)

20. Joakim Grader (Warriors RC)

21. Andrew Myrie (Helsinki RC)

22. Elias Korhonen (Jyväskylä RC)

Scorers:

Finland -

Try: Luopio, Devenyi

Conversion: Luopio, Finell

Luxembourg -

1 try (converted) and 3 penalties. 

Finland will fly to Norway for their second ENC game on 20.10.2012.

FINLAND'S LADIES ALSO SUFFER CLOSE DEFEAT

Finland's ladies also played an international friendly game versus Switzerland that day. A hard-fought game resulted in a tight loss for our girls.  You can watch the match video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkTo7QtpGkE

You can also see some high quality match photos of the game, courtesy of Rod McCracken, via the following link:
http://riafin.galleria.fi/kuvat/Rugby/Ladies+friendly+Finland+-+Switzerland/

Please remember to credit Rod for his excellent work if you choose to use these photos.