22 
08 
Written by Kevin Hare – RugbyRedefined.com
December 1st 2013 : Paphos , Cyprus & (Video Highlights)
Cyprus vs Austria
“The Battle of the Goats”
Well we predicted a battle and a battle we had delivered in Paphos, as Cyprus were looking at extending their World Record Test win streak to 21 matches undefeated against the visiting Austrian’s.
The first points in the match came in the 10th min from Austria with a penalty from Maximilian Navas to see Austria lead 3-0 , but the Moufflons were to strike back within minutes when Yannis Loizia crossed over for the first try of the match @11:20min .
The kicking duties for Cyprus today went to Alexandros Zavallis who calmly slotted the conversion to give the Austrians their lead a short lifespan of 1 minute as they conceded to be 7-3.
In very warm and dry conditions though the play became somewhat stop start affair as the Moufflons looked for more points . They were awarded a penalty at the 19min mark , and Zavallis once again slotted the points to have Cyprus lead 10 – 3 after 20mins.
Then we saw the first of the cards shown on the 29min mark when Stephan Eleftheriou got his time on the sideline with a yellow card and 10 mins to think about how this may effected the team. But he not need worry , as a 14 man Cyprus Team held on magnificently with some pressure from Austria the Moufflons were able to strike a score before half time out wide with a try to number 8 man Constantinos Constantinides , Zavallis missed the conversion but Cyprus now led heading towards the half time break 15 – 03.
Moments before the half time whistle they were back to full compliment when Stephan Eleftheriou came back to the field of play , and with the disadvantage of only 14 players for the latter part of the half Cyprus entered the sheds 15- 03 ahead. 40 Mins to go 40 mins to a very happy 21st Victory , maybe .
With no changes as the teams re-appeared it was a case of could Cyprus build on their first half lead of 12 points. It took 5 and half minutes and the pressure told as Austria struck with again the opening score of the half as they did in the first half , though this time it was not a penalty it was Try time to Austrian hooker Milad Farkhondeh-Fal , Maximilian Navas failed with the Conversion attempt but the Austrians had narrowed the gap by 5 points to be still behind by 7 pts , 15-08 to Cyprus but more importantly only 7 points behind for Austria , a try would bring them level.
Andrew Binikos
With plenty of to and fro’ing for the next 5 minutes the referee George Kaloxilos of Greece had no option but to issue a second yellow card to Cyprus this time it was first- five Andrew Binikos who got to warm the seat for 10 mins.
Austria made a change to the forwards at 56min when Maximilian Kinsky came on for Sebastian Freydell.
Then The Drama began in earnest with Binikos due to return to the field , Austria lost received their first Yellow of the Match when prop Max Müller was carded for an infringement and Austria now were down to 14 while Cyprus were re-instated to 15 with Binikos returning to the field of play.
And this diffidently proved costly for the Austrians as from the ensuing play #15 Yannis Loizia crossed for his second try of the match and it was now 20 – 08 to the Moufflons with the conversion to come. Alexandros Zavallis converted to take the Cypriots out to a 14 point lead 22 – 08.
With plenty of movement on the bench with 15 minutes to go Cyprus made 3 changes with Stavros Charalambous , Jack Bilton and Costas Pavlou replacing Stavros Economou , Georgios Agathokleous and Alexandros Philiotis respectfully.
Then with 11 mins to go George Kaloxilos had no choice but to send to players from the field with a Full Red Card … First shown was a second Yellow for Andrew Binikos of Cyprus which of course equates to a RED Card and then not to be outdone Austria had Omar El Agrebi shown the second Red Card delivered , they were also the first Red Cards shown in this Edition of the ENC2C 2012-14 Competition.
We coined this match “the Battle of the Goats” and it was beginning to live up to the moniker as both teams went out hard against each for the remainder of the Match.
Substitutions continued throughout the remaining time in the match which saw Maximilian Kinsky replaced by Archil Gulua due to El Agrebi’s Red Card so the Austrians needed a front Row replacement. Then two changes for Cyprus saw Daniel McFarlane replace first half try scorer Constantinos Constantinides and Dinu Floredan came on to give Stephan Eleftheriou a well earned early break from the match.
Austria then cleared the bench in the final minutes bringing on Stephan Pauser , Michael Kerschbaumer and Christopher Graf for Mathias Hemetsberger , Maximilian Navas and Milan Sabo.
And then with only moments left on the clock George Kaloxilos brought out the card for the 6th time in the match and this time it was a 4th yellow and Austria were to be down to 13players for the remainder of the match when Mushegh Aslanyan was yellow carded. Austria then replaced Stephan Asboth with Paul Hruschka.
Cyprus were only now moments away from extending their World Record to 21 victories in row when Cyprus coach Paul Shanks cleared the the Cyprus bench giving Artemios Papageorgiou , Scott Lennox and Panayiotis Nikolaidis some minutes on the paddock to bring the Moufflons home as Marios Zakakiotis , Franjescos Stavrou and Joakim Antoniou got to start their celebrations a little earlier than the rest after a solid 79 mins from the three players.
So as the match wound down George Kaloxilos finally blew the game to a close and after a tremendous battle the “Moufflons” were once again celebrating a victory by 22-08 and more importantly now the unbeaten run continues to 21 successive victories and with 6 New Caps in the past 2 games the Moufflons depth is beginning to grow as the youth exuberance for Rugby Union begins to flourish on the Mediterranean Island .
“The Battle of the Goats” delivered and RugbyRedefined.com congratulate the Moufflons on their continued success and on securing the FIRA-AER Division 2C Championship , and with still 2 matches to play.
Burhan Torgut with the 2012-14 FIRA-AER Championship Shield , “Cyprus” ENC2C Champions
21 Wins in a Row
The World Record is extended….
Confirmed fixtures for 2014
21 Wins and Still going !
26/04/2014 Bulgaria
vs
Cyprus
17/05/2014 CyprusHungary
Full Game Data Sheet available – click here
Updated Ranking “ENC 2C”
CYPRUS have unbeatable Lead and are Crowned “Champions of ENC 2C”
| Matches | Score | Tries | Conv. | Pen. | Drops | Cards | |||||||||||||||
| Rank | Teams | P | W | D | L | Pts | B | Total | f. | a. | diff. | f. | a. | f. | a. | f. | a. | f. | a. | Y. | R. |
| 1 | Cyprus |
6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 24 | 4 | 28 | 254 | 64 | 190 | 36 | 6 | 22 | 2 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 |
| 2 | Hungary |
6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 16 | 4 | 20 | 163 | 65 | 98 | 19 | 6 | 13 | 4 | 14 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 3 |  Slovenia |
6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 58 | 165 | -107 | 8 | 21 | 3 | 12 | 4 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| 4 | Bulgaria |
6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 9 | 84 | 253 | -169 | 8 | 35 | 4 | 24 | 12 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 5 |  Austria |
6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 123 | 135 | -12 | 15 | 18 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
|
1. Stephan Eleftheriou * – denotes new caps Manager: Rick Wadmore Head Coach: Paul Shanks Physio: Pamela Barber Water Carrier 1: Bradley Rolfe Water Carrier 2: Nicolas Charalambides ———————————————————– |
1: Omar El Agrebi Manager: Oliver Grössenbrunner Head Coach: Philip Stevenson Coach: Peter Smutna Physio: Elke Barber Parzefal-Kaiser Doctor : Georg Kaiser ————————————————————– |
STATS & Story by: Kevin Hare for http://rugbyredefined.com
Other Contributions from :
http://www.fira-aer-rugby.com/ , Cyprus Rugby and Austria Rugby
rugbyredefined.wordpress.com 