Before the important Baltic Top League match with the title holders Šiauliai “Baltrex” in Upesciem on Saturday, “Baltic XL/Livonia” played a semi-final match with the “Lāči/Mūku Sala” team on Thursday. The winners of the first place of the regular tournament, “Baltic XL/Livonia”, as well as the vice-leaders “Miesnieki”, had automatically secured a place in the semi-finals, but the “Bears” had to play the quarter-final game in order to enter the top four.
We previously informed that in the quarter-final game of the Latvian championship in rugby-15 men held on August 9 at the Riga Technical College stadium, the second team of RK “Livonia” “Garkalne/Livonia” faced an injury to two first-line players and this time recognized the very well-rounded “Lāču/Mūku Sala” of Rāmava ” superiority with 7:29. Thus, instead of the duel between the two “Livonia” teams, “Baltic XL/Livonia” also met “Lāčiem” in the semi-finals.
In the regular tournament game between “Baltic XL/Livonia” and “Lāčiem/Mūku Sala”, which took place in the middle of May, the first team of “Livonia” celebrated a record-breaking “dry” victory with 138-0 at the magnificent Upesciema Stadium. Even though this time there was not going to be such a huge lead, there was no doubt about a convincing victory for the Livonians, as the bears did not have such a strong team as against the second team of “Livonia” in the quarter-finals.
In the first ten minutes, Miķelis Jurevičs, Artis Konutis and Enzo Beltramino scored touchdowns for the Livonians, but in the third time, Dāvids Židelis was accurate from the edge, making the score 17:0. Batic XL/Livonia continued to dominate. Within a couple of minutes, Konutis and Beltramino brought touchdowns again, Židelis was accurate in the realization, the result already became 31-0 in the middle of the half.
Soon Židelis made the first touchdown himself and also made no mistakes in the conversion shot (38:0), but in the 25th minute, Briedis from Livonia was injured, leaving the home team without a first-line player, thus the group battles took place without pushing, but “Baltic XL/Livonia” had to play 14 in the players.
Playing in the minority in the next ten minutes, “Livonia” scored one touchdown (Rubīns), and it seemed that this would be the end of the first half, but in the last two minutes, the leaders of the regular season scored two touchdowns with the contribution of Jurevic and Zaltsmanis, Židelis was accurate once in the conversion kick, thus at halftime the Livonians had exceeded half a hundred – 55-0.
In the second half, in the 44th minute, Rubīns scored the second touchdown, but then the visitors scored the first points in the 51st minute. Jānis Pelēcis stood out for the “Bears” with a penalty kick from about 30m – 60:3. The game was even and “Baltic XL/Livonia”, thinking about Saturday’s very important game in the Baltic Top League against “Baltrex” of Šiauliai, slowed down by making some changes in the second half, allowing captain Beltramino to rest as well.
But that didn’t mean the hosts didn’t keep scoring. Židelis, Vigo Valdavs, Gints Vārpa and Runco were accurate once in the conversion shot, the result becoming 79:3. In the last minutes, the initiative was taken over by the “Bears”, who had very good opportunities to score a few more points, as well as score a prestigious touchdown, twice, but the Livonians played successfully in defense, and the bears did not score a penalty once.
Therefore, in the final, “Baltic XL/Livonia” will meet “Miesnieki”, who defeated “Fēniks” of Valmiera in the second semi-final game.
2024-08-31 05:16:31