Serbia vs Czech Republic

[carlnz]

From another forum:

Their first full international is due to be against Serbia on 12th August in Prague.

Could be the makings of a great Rugby League tradition in Eastern Europe

Will be Serbia's first International win? Good to see them getting out there and playing more International games.

 

[VukPopovic]

As an Unionist who plays in Canada I could not be more happier for the progress shown by the boys back home. for me it is all rugby, and I can tell you without any doubt that rugby in Serbia is going into a right direction after 50 years of stagnation under union bureaucracy.

Serbian RL is full of young, enthusiastic people even though media coverage is non existent. If this obstacle is to be tackled head on, I strongly believe that rugby as whole will soon become one of the nations most popular sports.

As for Czech, I wish them nothing but hard work and best of luck along with it. They have a great example in Serbia.

However I repeat, most important aspects of RL development depends of TV coverage. I speak this from our own experience with American Football. For 4-5 years of broadcasts, Serbian AF grew to 15 teams that compete actively with I am sure around 1000 registered members.

I do not believe that RLEF and ARL Development fully understand crucial aspects of media for a development of RL in "start-up countries". If they did I am sure they would find a entering point into small broadcasting markets like Georgia, Greece or Serbia have.

YOU MIGHT HAVE THE GREATEST GAME OF ALL, BUT IF NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT IT YOU ARE F-ED IN THE A!!!

;-)

 

[VukPopovic]

Serbs won 36-28! More to follow...

congrats on the first win, and congrats to Czech on the good result.

 

[dorcolrugby]

From today's Belgrade sport daily newspapers "Sport":

Translation:
RUGBY LEAGUE
RUGBY LEAGUE SLAVIC CUP 2006 MATCH HELD IN PRAGUE
THE FIRST TRIUMPH OF SERBIA
CZECH REPUBLIC 28-36 SERBIA (halftime 4-24)
Venue: RC Slavia Praha, Att.:500, Ref.: Kevin Rudd (England),
Scorers:
CZECH REP.: 5 tries (Kučera M.-2, Priputen, Paukner, Brabec), 4 goals (all Kučera M.),
SERBIA: 7 tries (Pešić-2, Novaković, Janković, Granić, Antić, Vojvodi&#263, 4 goals (Granić-3, Novaković-1)
Sent-off: Novaković (Serbia)

CZECH REP.: Priputen, Ciporanov, Mana, Mulhall, Paukner, Kučera M., Poledna, Brádle, Stříbrný, Holovský, Verbich, Kurka, Prokep. Subs (all used): Hencl, Benda, Kučera J., Brabec.
SERBIA: Mitić, Vojvodić, Milinković, Antić, Raković, Granić, Vujošević, Novaković, Pešić, Jevtić, Janković, Tomčić, Žebeljan. Sub (used): Ristić.

In the match of Rugby League Slavic Cup 2006, national team of Serbia won host Czech Republic in stadium of RC Sparta in Prague and gained their first international trophy. "White Eagles" came in Prague with weakened squad due to passport problems, and had just one substitue player. Our players, favourites in this match, made big difference in the first half. In the second half exhaustion, injuries and "short bench" made theirselves and home team used it to decrease our score advantage. "Eagles" finished match with only 11 players due to injuries and Novaković's red card.
Captain Mate Granić received the cup from the hands of RLEF representative.
"Rugby League Slavic Cup will be traditional competition. As its first winners, we will have obligation to keep it as long as we can in our show case, esspecially because we will be the host of the next one. We justified the role of favourites today, we completed our duties and success arrived.", happily said captain Granić after Cup presentation.

Under-figure quote: "Strong Serbian defence gained the first international triumph for 'White Eagles'". The picture is from the match Serbia (in dark) v Lionhearts (in white jerseys).

I want to add that Serbian side was full domestic-based (without our players from UK and Australia) and many of players were on vacation so they couldn't play, as well as our two players who went to Russian Vereya just two weeks ago (Vukanović and Radovanović, played for Warrington Wizards from Feb to May 2006 and for London Skolars in spring 2005).

Congratulations to Czechs for organization and for playing.

 

[dorcolrugby]

Monday 14 August 2006
SLAVIC CUP

CZECH REPUBLIC 28 SERBIA XIII 36
RC Slavia Praha, Vladivostocka, Prague

Serbia withstood a spirited rearguard action from the rapidly improving Czech Republic to take the inaugural Slavic Cup in Prague.

Taking advantage of a disappointing start by the hosts, and inspired by man of the match Mate Granic, Serbia scored 18 unanswered points in the opening spell, capitalizing on the home team's handling errors.

Down 24-4 at the break, the Czechs gave a much improved performance in the second half, inspired by tough-tackling Andrew Mulhall, an Australian-born Czech resident, and Michal Kucera, who the Czech RL association named as their outstanding player.

Thanks to three late tries, two of them to Kucera, the gap was eventually reduced to eight points, as the visitors began to tire.

Delighted Serbia RL official Jovan Vujosevic commented, “I am delighted with the victory as we blooded several new players to build up our strength in depth.”

“It has been the most challenging year yet for Serbia RL but we have competed successfully at a number of levels and we hope to start further work at under 16’s next year.”

 

[ali]

Good to hear about the Serb players heading to Vereya. That would have to make the Vereya side one of the most multinational in RL. We already know they have recruited players from a couple of other former soviet states (I think it was Ukraine and Moldova), so that gives them atleast 4 nationalities in the squad.

 

[dorcolrugby]

Yes, you were right about other nationalities in Vereya. Just a little bit of off-topic, our players Vukanovic with 3 tries and Radovanovic with one try took part in Vereya's victory over Dynamo Moscow 82-4.