Rugby: Lausanne 'shut down' Zurich to win Swiss Cup

"Most of the guys got home at about half past five in the morning," Stade Lausanne coach, Andy Whitlow told Swisster after beating Zurich Grasshoppers 14-9 to win the Swiss Cup at the Juan-Antonio Samaranch Stadium on Saturday.

"It was a good solidifying victory. Afterwards all the problems are forgotten," he added. Hardly surprising after what must have been a prodigious celebration.

Much of the 40th final proved to be a closely fought chess-like affair based on exchanges of penalties before the home side romped away with the decisive try late in the second half.

Finding himself out on the wing, replacement hooker Lee Hughes settled the issue with a 30-metre sprint after Stade engineered an overlap.

"Feels good and we’re quite relieved," said Stade coach, Andy Whitlow, whose side now have some silverware to show for a season in which they were the outstanding team.

"We made a lot of mistakes and it took us a while to get things going. However, defensively we shut them down and they didn’t look like breaking our line and scoring a try."

"We played the game we wanted to play – that was the key," he added.

At half time the game was all square at 6-6 with penalties from Stade’s Adrian Stadelmann and Zurich’s Felix von Reischach before the latter slotted over another to propel the visitors into a 9-6 lead.

"We got within five or ten metres of their line quite often. Then we scored a disallowed try for a forward pass and after that I was a little bit nervous," said Whitlow of his emotions before the winning try.

Zurich coach, James Kerr told Swisster: "It was a really close game. It was just that try at the end and we were gutted about it."

"They had an overlap on the far side. Our full back came into the defensive line to make a tackle and knocked himself out in process. They moved the ball really quickly from the breakdown and scored on the other side of the field," is how Kerr viewed the game’s pivotal moment.

"We had hoped to maintain that 9-6 lead and it could have gone either way in the last ten minutes, but it was one of the best games in regards to physicality and fairness and was refereed really well," he said of Jeremy Brown's adjudication.

However, the day might have begun in more encouraging fashion for the coach after skipper Josh Bjornson was forced to rule himself out.

"It was unfortunate not to have him on the field. He’s worked extremely hard as captain this year and to lose someone of that influence on the day of the cup was difficult, but the players that we had stepped up, and the pack did extremely well," Kerr reflected.

The match would have been Bjornson’s last as captain, though Kerr will probably remain in charge of the side. "It has been a little inconsistent as regard to results, but we have maintained our strategy over the last half of the season," he said.

"We do have plenty to build on but need to achieve more consistency considering we're such a big club," summed up Kerr.

For Whitlow the emphasis will be doing the same, but more efficiently. "We’re not losing a lot of guys, the team will stay pretty much together, so we’re not going to be changing much."

Despite pre-match predictions of as many as 2,000 spectators, attendance is estimated to have been around 300.

But to add to a memorable, though stiflingly hot day on their home ground, Stade Lausanne also won the sevens tournament.