HRC took an all-important 25–20 win over the Warriors in Saturday’s local derby. The derby win keeps the Big Guns in the race for home advantage in the men’s championship semifinals.
The game started under a grey sky with an ominous resemblance to the season’s earlier meeting. Penalties piled up early and pinned HRC to their own try line. The blue defence cracked only after a yellow card for repeated infringements, which helped the Warriors to a 5–0 lead after almost fifteen minutes of relentless pressure. After the opening try HRC gained some possession and started building their own attack. Less than half an hour in, Joonas Bask finished a move that had started in HRC’s own half, but the conversion came back off the post. The steady flow of penalties continued, and five minutes before the break another yellow card gave the Warriors a numerical advantage. The visitors took their chance and went into half-time with a 10–5 lead.
How the derby win was earned
The second half started with HRC forcing the game into the Warriors’ half. A yellow card for a high tackle against a Warriors player at the start of the half gave HRC a chance that was not wasted: Dario Forneris levelled the score at 10–10, and Wertti Bask crossed the line a few minutes later. Joonas Bask kicked the conversion for a 17–10 lead.
After the burst of points the game bogged down into a penalty-ridden set-piece battle again, and a third yellow card for HRC tipped the balance. The Warriors crawled over the line with simple forward play to narrow the gap to 17–15. HRC responded with a successful Joonas Bask penalty with less than ten minutes left. The decisive moment came a few minutes later: Dario Forneris made a dazzling solo run from his own half to near the Warriors’ try line, and although he was caught, a well-timed offload freed Paavo Honkanen to score for a 25–15 lead. The Warriors did not give up and scored once more from close range at the end of normal time to make it 25–20. HRC had to defend through a long period of added time, but the visitors got no closer.
The best performance of the season
With more than 30 penalties and three yellow cards against HRC, the win was a staggering effort from the Big Guns and probably their best performance of the season. Because of the broken nature of the game, HRC’s best attacking rugby was not seen, but the team looked dangerous every time the backs got the ball in hand. The Warriors, relying on their forwards’ carries and set pieces, benefited greatly from the stop-start game.
– We knew it was going to be a challenge for us as a team, but we believed that if we could limit the penalties, we had the talent in the squad to come out on top. Unfortunately we had many penalties against us again, but this time our resilience made the Warriors work a lot harder for their points than in our previous match. The forwards deserve a mention for defending so many phases close to the ruck, while the backs managed to unlock the Warriors’ defence when they got their chances, said HRC’s player-coach Jake Pratley.
Saturday’s win lifted HRC to second place, three points behind the leading Warriors. The top three are close, and home advantage will probably be decided at the very end. The Big Guns’ regular season ends next Saturday away in Kuopio.
HRC–Warriors 25–20 (5–10)
Tries: Joonas Bask, Dario Forneris, Wertti Bask and Paavo Honkanen. Conversion and penalty: Joonas Bask. Yellow cards: David O’Connor, Antti Järvenpää and Riku Lempiö.
Line-up: 1 Mikko Aalto, 2 Paulo Pannuzzo, 3 Chris Denholm, 4 Wertti Bask, 5 Ville Siiskonen, 6 Antti Järvenpää, 7 Iikka Ahlfors, 8 David O’Connor, 9 Luke Parsons, 10 Jake Pratley, 11 Joonas Bask, 12 Paavo Honkanen, 13 Riku Lempiö, 14 Mika Takala, 15 Dario Forneris. Substitutes: Kevin McCarthy, Emmanuel Courbin, Samuel Kuutti, Jesperi Virtanen, Ilja Prohorov, Saxby Young, Anton Nevalainen and Andrej Solovian.
Text: Mika Huopainen
