Rugby: Switzerland shot down by Serbian snipers

Switzerland were expecting Saturday’s match against Serbia in Belgrade to mark the end of a series of disappointing results which has seen them propping up the European 3A division.

Although a tightly contested, low-scoring affair with Switzerland looking the better team, the Serbs almost managed a carbon copy of April’s international fixture in Nyon, by stealing the match 13-8.

Switzerland’s number ten, Iain Wise summed up international clash thus: “Not dissimilar to the last game. It’s difficult to pinpoint where it went wrong, but perhaps they were hungrier than we were, and perhaps our decision making was dodgy at times,” he told Swisster.

“We click well as group and the coaches did a really good job setting us up with a solid game strategy. We carried it out in partk, but not enough to get the win,” he added.

"I would definitely say that we were the better team on the day," said Gary De Graaf – a member of the coaching staff starting at number eight. "But we only played better at times and not consistently and at crucial moments they stepped up and put the points on the board."

In the 61^st minute however, De Graaf was showing then how it was done, scoring from a lineout catch, drive and rolling maul to put the visitors in front 8-7.

The try cancelled out a converted Serbian effort shortly after the half-hour mark, and it seemed as if Switzerland were going to come out on top, only to present the advantage straight back to their hosts.

“We fought back again to get that try, but then we gave away two soft penalties,” said Wise. The first was inexcusable. “They kicked off and we conceded just outside kicking distance and through some indiscipline we gave them ten yards and they slotted it over,” he said of an effort that agonizingly hit the crossbar before claiming three points.

Four minutes later and the home team had added another penalty for good measure. Then it was virtually one-way traffic. “We spent the last ten minutes of the game camped on their line and could not get over. It was extremely frustrating because we were the better team,” said Wise who suggested that the home team used their home advantage effectively.

“We played on a pitch that was muddy and heavy – though that’s no excuse – and they failed to play our national anthem. Perhaps they dragged us down to their level. It was gritty, there’s wasn’t a huge amount of ruby played, and it was dour,” he said. “Full credit to them though, they took their chances.”

After Switzerland had taken the lead in the 10^th minute through a Jesse Nicholas (number nine) penalty, Serbia took one of those chances.

“It was another rolling maul – they were pretty good at that, and they drove over,” said De Graaf. “A real forward’s try and that was 7-3 to them.”

With just seven table points from five games, the result leaves Switzerland precariously perched on equal fourth and last spot in the division with Andorra.

Nonetheless a win against Armenia on November 22 would go some way to reducing the risk of relegation (one team goes down at the end of the eight-match league).

And Armenia have been having problems of their own after failing to show up for a division match and rumours of a fledgling governing body under pressure.

European 3A division