Germany played ten competition games and two friendlies in its campaign. It lost all ten competition games and, with the exception of the two games against Spain, did so quite clearly, ultimately resulting in Germany's relegation back to the Division 2A for the 2010–12 season. Of the two warm-up friendlies, it lost its match against a Welsh Districts XV, too and managed to win only the game against Hong Kong. A third friendly, against a selection of the British Forces Germany, the British Army Germany rugby union team, had to be postponed twice because of bad weather and was eventually cancelled.[2][3]
Germany also played two friendlies against Switzerland, to contest the Alpencup, but these games were not counted towards the country's official record as the sides fielded were an under-21 side in 2008 and labelled as Germany A in 2009.[4][5]
Germany went into its campaign unbeaten at home, having last lost on 12 November 2000, to Ukraine. This record was broken on in its first game on 8 November 2008, when it lost to the Welsh XV.[6]
The last placed team in the competition was relegated to the Division 2A.
Management and coaching
At the beginning of Germany's ENC campaign, it was coached by a troika, made up of Rudolf Finsterer, Bruno Stolorz and Mark Kuhlmann, under the supervision of Peter Ianusevici, Germany's Director of Rugby. Kuhlman resigned from his post in March 2009 after over three years of service, without being replaced, while the other two remained in their positions.[7] After losing its tenth and final ENC game, Rudolf Finsterer resigned, having spent ten years as coach of Germany.[8] Finsterer's decision however had been made before the game, and he had informed the team of his decision beforehand, too.[9]
With the international retirement of captain Jens Schmidt in May 2009, Mustafa Güngör became the new captain of the national team with his first game in this position being the one against Hong Kong.[10]
Debuts & retirements
Germany lost a number of players due to retirement during its ENC campaign, usually because most German players are still amateurs and their work commitments don't allow them to continue playing internationally. Along with two former captains, Colin Grzanna and Jens Schmidt, Germany lost two very important players in May 2009. Additionally, Gerrit van Look, Sebastien Chaule[11] and Pierre Faber were all long-term players in the team who terminated their international career.
Of the seven home games Germany had in this campaign, four were held in Heidelberg and one each in Hanover, Heusenstamm and Berlin. The later was the first game of the German team to be held in the capital in over eight years.[13]
The five away games were in Madrid, Lisbon, Tbilisi, Sochi and Constanţa. The latter was originally scheduled for Bucharest but had to be moved to the Black Sea coast because of bad weather in the Romanian capital, a general issue affecting a number of test matches in early 2010 in Europe.[14]
^ abcdMarten Strauch (5), Gerrit van Look (15), Bodo Sieber (15) and Christopher Weselek (25) received awards for set number of games after the Germany versus Netherlands game on 26 April 2008.
^ abcdefRaphael Hackl, Patrick Schliwa, Benjamin Ulrich, Alexander Hauck, Jamie Houston and Mark Sztyndera made their debut against Hong Kong on 12 December 2009.
^ abcdeDennis Walger, Thorsten Wiedemann, Raphael Pyrasch, Rolf Wacha, Christian Baracat and Alexander Hug all made their debut in Germany's game against Switzerland on 29 September 2007.
^Germany - Georgia(in German) totalrugby.de, published: 7 February 2009, accessed: 27 February 2010
^ abcTim Kasten, Markus Walger and Lars Eckert received the silver merrit of the DRV after each playing their 15th game for Germany against Molavia on 24 November 2007. Stephen Williams debut for Germany in this game.
