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 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 sesions 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 debuet 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:

Place	Nation	Games				Points			Table points
		played	won	drawn	lost	for	against	difference
1	Belgium	10	9	0	1	303	149	+154	39
2	Poland	10	6	1	3	238	189	+49	31
3	Moldova	10	5	1	4	194	211	-17	26
4	Germany	10	4	0	6	229	212	+17	22
5	Czech Republic	10	4	0	6	160	217	-57	20
6	Netherlands	10	1	0	9	153	299	-146	6

Games

Friendlies

	11 December 2010	Germany	34–13	Hong Kong	Fritz-Grunebaum-Sportpark, Heidelberg
	14:30	Try: Himmer 20', Simm 55', Widiker 61' Con: Heimpel (2) 55', 61' Pen: Heimpel (5) 22', 34', 35', 37', 40'	(Report)	Try: Jones 77' Con: McColl 77' Pen: Price 45', 46'	Attendance: 800 Referee: Radu Petrescu (Romania)

	5 March 2011	Germany	19–43	New Zealand Ambassadors XV	Sportanlage in der Feldgerichtstrasse, Frankfurt am Main
	14:00	Try: Kasten 54', Zeiler 66', Widiker 75' Con: Fabian Heimpel (2) 66', 75'	([http://www.rugby-verband.de/?data[pageid]=12&data[newsid]=uzsosi Report])	Try: Hughson 2', Leung-Wai 7', Gibson 13', T. Manawatu 50', Walker (2) 58', 80', Westerlund 71' Con: K. Manawatu 2', T. Manawatu (3) 7', 58', 71'	Referee: Dana Teagarden (Germany)

	5 November 2011	Germany	19–17	New Zealand Ambassadors XV	Sportanlage in der Feldgerichtstrasse, Frankfurt am Main
	13:00	Try: Pyrasch 14', Joordan 19' Pen: Parkinson (2) 9', 37' Drop: Armstrong 47'	([http://www.rugby-verband.de/?data[pageid]=12&data[newsid]=r9aysp Report])	Try: Walker 40', Elisara 59', Muggeridge 73' Con: Elisara 59'	Attendance: 700

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

	20 November 2010	Germany	17–22	Poland	Sportanlage in der Feldgerichtstrasse, Frankfurt am Main
	14:30	Try: Güngör 7', Hauck 14' Con: Heimpel (2) 7', 14' Pen: Heimpel 43'	(Report)	Try: Bobryk 47' Con: Chartier 47' Pen: Chartier (5) 11', 33', 37', 53', 55'	Attendance: 1,000 Referee: Pedro Murinello (Portugal)

	27 November 2010	Netherlands	10–29	Germany	Amsterdam
	14:30	Try: Blom 11', Cornelisse 18'	(Report)	Try: Widiker 7', Liebig 37', Keinhorst 80' Con: Heimpel 37' Pen: Heimpel (4) 16', 36', 45', 76'	Referee: Stephano Marrama (Italy)

	12 March 2011	Germany	23–29	Czech Republic	Fritz-Grunebaum-Sportpark, Heidelberg
	14:30	Try: G. Franke 16', Schmidt 55' Con: Heimpel (2) 16', 55' Pen: Heimpel (3) 9', 30', 67'	(Report)	Try: Kutil (2) 12', 40' Con: Vokrouhlík (2) 12', 40' Pen: Vokrouhlík (5) 6', 18', 33', 38', 53'	Attendance: 2,000 Referee: Tony Raduta (Romania)

	19 March 2011	Belgium	28–25	Germany	Brussels
	15:00	Try: Berger (2) 26', 36', Williams 59' Con: Williams (2) 36', 59' Pen: Williams (3) 5', 7', 68'	(Report)	Try: Jordaan (2) 17', 77', Strauch 74' Con: Heimpel 17', Güngör 77' Pen: Heimpel (2) 10', 40'	Referee: Félix Villegas (Spain)

	2 April 2011	Moldova	28–15	Germany	Dynamo Stadium, Chişinău
	15:00	Try: Prepelita (2) 10', 56', Arhip 74' Con: Gagauz (2) 10', 74' Pen: Gagauz (3) 19', 35', 53'	(Report)	Try: Kasten 39', Liebig 47' Con: Güngör 47' Pen: G. Franke 37'	Attendance: 3,000 Referee: Radu Petrescu (Romania)

	12 November 2011	Germany	23–7	Netherlands	Rudolf-Kalweit-Stadion, Hanover
	14:00	Try: Jordaan 19', Franke 34', Hauck 51' Con: Parkinson 19' Pen: Parkinson 80' Drop: Parkinson 17'	([http://www.rugby-verband.de/?data[pageid]=12&data[newsid]=891n5j Report])	Try: Barendregt 62' Con: Koenen 62'	Attendance: 3,100 Referee: Pedro Murinello (Portugal)

	19 November 2011	Poland	34–8	Germany	Gdańsk
	19:30	Try: Chartier (2) 23', 78', Hotowski 29', Wojciech Łukasiewicz 46' Con: Chartier (4) 23', 29', 46', 78' Pen: Chartier (2) 15', 28'	(Report)	Try: Himmer 14' Pen: Parkinson 6'	Attendance: 2,500 Referee: Igotz Gallastegui (Spain)

	10 March 2012	Czech Republic	17–20	Germany	RC Tatra Smichov, Prague
	13:00	Try: Cerny 50', Jirman 57' Con: Cizek (2) 50', 58' Drop: Cizek 67'	(Report)	Try: Kasten (2) 26', 44', Manawatu 78' Con: Heimpel 27' Pen: Heimpel 12'	Attendance: 2,500 Referee: Robrt Diaconescu (Romania)

	17 March 2012	Germany	29–30	Belgium	Martinsee, Heusenstamm
	15:00	Try: Armstrong 31', Strauch 33', Manawatu 39', Kasten 80' Con: Manawatu (3) 32', 40', 80' Pen: Manawatu 20'	(Report)	Try: Penalty try (2) 47, 78', Pierre Hendrickx 63' Con: Williams (3) 48', 64', 78' Pen: Williams (3) 5', 16', 396'	Attendance: 1,500 Referee: Stefano Roscini (Italy)

	24 March 2012	Germany	40–7	Moldova	Fritz-Grunebaum-Sportpark, Heidelberg
	14:30	Try: Kasten (2) 26', 512', May 38', Eckert 56', Manawatu 67', Strauch 73' Con: Hilsenbeck (2) 57', 68' Pen: Manawatu (2) 4', 11'	(Report)	Try: Arhip 31' Con: Gagauz 32'	Attendance: 1,000 Referee: Vlad Iordachescu (Romania)

Player statistics

Squad

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

Backs Player Position Club Mustafa Güngör Scrum-half RG Heidelberg (2010–11) TV Pforzheim (2011–12) Tim Menzel Scrum-half US Colomiers (2010–11) TSV Handschuhsheim (2011–12) Raphael Pyrasch Scrum-half Heidelberger RK Sean Armstrong Scrum-half Heidelberger RK Kieran Manawatu Scrum-half SC 1880 Frankfurt Kieron Davies Fly-half Luton RFC Fabian Heimpel Fly-half RG Heidelberg Raynor Parkinson Fly-half RC Hilversum Lars Eckert Fly-half SC Neuenheim Chris Hilsenbeck Fly-half US Colomiers Benjamin Simm Centre DSV 78 Hannover Clemens von Grumbkow Centre Cavalieri Prato Gilles Pagnon Centre RC Draguignan Pieter Jordaan Centre Heidelberger RK Anjo Buckman Centre Heidelberger RK Olivier Galli Centre RC Orleans Carlos Soteras Merz Centre TV Pforzheim Marten Strauch Wing SC Neuenheim Steffen Liebig Wing Heidelberger RK James Keinhorst Wing Otley R.U.F.C. Mark Sztyndera Wing SC 1880 Frankfurt Guillaume Franke Wing RC Orléans Bastian Himmer Fullback RG Heidelberg Matthieu Franke Fullback RC Orléans

Forwards Player Position Club Alexander Widiker (c) Hooker Heidelberger RK Sven Wetzel Hooker TSV Handschuhsheim Gilles Valette Hooker Cahors Rugby Mika Tyumenev Hooker DSV 78 Hannover Tim Coly Hooker RG Heidelberg Benjamin Krause Prop DSV 78 Hannover Damien Tussac Prop RC Toulon Arthur Zeiler Prop Heidelberger RK Patrick Schliwa Prop Heidelberger RK Nico Kanning Prop AC Bobigny Felix Bayer Prop TSV Handschuhsheim Stéphane Kohler Prop CA Lannemezan Benjamin Strappazon Prop Stade Montois Lukas Hinds-Johnson Lock RK 03 Berlin Michael Poppmeier Lock Amatori Catania Jens Schmidt Lock TSV Handschuhsheim Daniel Armitage Lock Heidelberger RK Jannis Läpple Lock SC 1880 Frankfurt Benjamin Danso Lock Heidelberger RK Manuel Wilhelm Lock RG Heidelberg Kehoma Brenner Flanker Heidelberger RK Tim Kasten Flanker Heidelberger RK Alexander Hug Flanker TSV Handschuhsheim Sam Henderson Flanker SC 1880 Frankfurt Rob May Flanker TSV Handschuhsheim Callum Sauer Flanker TV Pforzheim Alexander Hauck Number eight SC 1880 Frankfurt Robert Mohr Number eight La Rochelle

• 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

References

External links

• (German) Deutscher Rugby-Verband - Official Site of the German Rugby Federation
• (German) TotalRugby.de German rugby website with news and results
• FIRA-AER website