Germany wins first round

Big hill for Spain to climb

Germany beat Spain 18-6 in Heidelberg on Saturday in the first leg of the final elimination at the end of Round 3 of Europe's qualifiers for the 2007 Rugby World Cup.  The second leg will be played in Madrid in a fortnight's time.

For Spain to overtake Germany they will have to win by more than 12 points.

The Fritz-Grunebaum-Stadium was packed for the match.

The German pack set up the victory for the Germans depriving the fast Spanish backs of ball.  In addition the German defence was well marshalled for the full 80 minutes and gave the Lions no leeway.

Experienced No.8 Robert Mohr, who plays his rugby in France, scored the first try from a line-out in the Spanish 22.  The German pack drove the maul over Spain's line for the try.

Spain's answer in the first half was a penalty goal by Esteban Roqué, which made the half-time score 5-3.

There were two red cards early in the second half.  After fighting the Welsh referee Neil Ballard sent off the German lock Sascha Fischer and the Spanish hooker Mathieu Cidré.  Earlier there had been yellow cards for Germany's Tim Kasten, Sascha Fischer and Jens Schmidt and Spain's Santiago Serrano.  It was a hotly contested, if slow, match.

Fullback Matthieu Franke increased Germany's lead with a penalty goal.

Play remained fairly even until wing Markus Walger scored Germany's second try.  Franke converted to make the score 15-3 with five minutes to go.

In those five minutes Franke kicked a second penalty goal, which was countered by one by replacement Andrei Kovalenco, Spain's veteran of Ukranian birth.

The German margin of victory could have been much greater had their goal-kicking been more accurate.

Scorers:

For Germany:
Tries:  Mohr, Walger
Con:  Franke
Pens:  Franke 2

For Spain:
Pens:  Roqué, Kovalenco

Teams:

Germany:  15 Matthieu Franke, 14 Mustafa Güngör, 13 Clemens von Grumbkow, 12 Colin Grzanna, 11 Markus Walger, 10 Kieron Davies, 9 Jacques Lemmer, 8 Robert Mohr, 7 Steffen Thier, 6 Tim Kasten, 5 Sascha Fischer, 4 Jens Schmidt (captain), 3 Pierre Faber, 2 Tim Coly, 1 Alexander Widiker.
Replacements:  16 Benjamin Krause, 17 Steffen Horwath, 18 Gerrit van Loock, 19 Alexander Pipa, 20 Mathias Pipa, 21 Hendrik van Loock, 22 Lars Eckert

Spain:  15 César Sempere, 14 David Mota, 13 Ferrán Velazco (captain), 12 Jaime Nava, 11 Ignacio Martín, 10 Esteban Roqué, 9 Pablo Feijoo, 8 Alfonso Mata, 7 Santiago Serrano, 6 Rafael Camacho, 5 Francisco López, 4 Andrew Ebbet, 3 Ion Insausti, 2 Mathieu Cidre, 1 Sergio Padrisa.
Replacements:  16 Diego Zarzosa, 17 Manuel Serrano, 18 Cyril Hijar, 19 Iván Criado, 20 Carlos Arenas, 21 Andrei Kovalenco, 22 Víctor Marlet

Referee:  Neil Ballard (Wales)