Serbian news

[miguel de cervantes]

http://translate.google.fr/translat...&u=http://www.ragbiliga.rs/sr/vesti/index.htm

A bunch of recent news stories on the Serbian front, notably:

- If my calculations and comprehension are correct, roughly 18.000€ of government funding, which is huge.

- A three-tier league with a few new teams.

- A new U18 format.

 

[DIOGENES]

There is a team from Banja Luka, which is officially in Bosnia herzegovena (admittedly the Serbian part)

 

[Bronco Rob]

It looks like 17 teams across 3 divisions. It's good growth and the Serbs are really developing the game well and I look forward to follow their progress.

 

[deal.with.it]

Looks as though Ilija Radan (Former Australian Institute of Sport player) has signed with Albi in the Elite 2 French comp after playing for Hemel in England last year. He is expected to play in the Bundaberg Cup in Sydney after the french season ends.
Aussie player, but has played for Serbia 6 times, including their WC qualifiers.

 

[dorcolrugby]

Serbian First League kicked off two weeks ago. Round 1 is postponed due to bad weather conditions, but round 2 and 3 brought some big scores and some tight games. This season is the first one with seniors and U18s play their respective competitions at the same time. Junior competitions were played after Grand Final because a lot of teams used U18 players in open age championships.

This weekend will see Game 1 of Serbian Origin Cup, representative City v Country style competition and it will be the first time for Rudar (Miners in English) from small town of Stanari in Republika Srpska to play full 13-a-side game v Banja Luka White Rabbits. It is the third club from RS, which means that they can form Rugby League Feferation of Republika Srpska and RLF of Bosnia and Hercegovina.

 

[dorcolrugby]

http://www.rlef.eu.com/news/article/583/serbia-country-take-lead-in

Serbia Country leads 1-0 in series. Also, Rudar Stanari inaugural game is introduction to Republika srpska championship which commences next weekend with White Rabbits v New Thunders clash in Banja Luka. Round 2 and 3 will be played in May. White Rabbits also compete in Serbian Second League (Division 2) this season.

 

[deluded pom?]

I just love the work the Serbs are doing. Now if they can just get someone to knock the Spiders off top spot.

 

[dorcolrugby]

Also, coaching course was held last Saturday where our coaches with RLEF tutors degree delivered a course to new coaches, some of them were from rugby union and two were from Hungary. Now, we Serbian RLF have to organize match official courses for referees in Greece, R.Srpska and Hunbgary, too, so they can play legitimate competitions on their own.

Re knocking Spiders off top spot, we'll see next Sunday, when Red Star v Dorcol game is scheduled. Red Star looks like the only capable team to beat Dorcol this year, but the season is long aned we'll see what will happen until the end. The both teams have 4 pts from 2 games so far and after this weekend, there will be maximum one team with 100% record in the competition.

 

[deluded pom?]

Thanks for the update dr.

 

[dorcolrugby]

Dorcol defeated Red Star 24-6 and stays alone on top of table with 6 points from 3 games. Red Star is second with 4 points, Niš, Podbara and Radnički NP have 2 points and Novi Beograd has no points on the bottom.

U18s Serbian Cup commenced as well Republika Srpska Championship (3 teams round robin competition) with White Rabbits defeated New Thunders 60-0.

 

[dorcolrugby]

Small update on Serbian ongoings:
Club half-season is officially finished last weekend with double header in Pančevo: Cup and Shield finals. Shield is subcompetition of cup, for those teams which were relegated in cup quarterfinals. Red star defeated Vojvoda from Pančevo 54-8 (video: http://youtu.be/pI_uPGcIgYM) and Dorćol defeated Soko from Vranje 68-4 in Cup final (video: http://youtu.be/uhSkW3uWepc). Soko had anyway surprisingly reached the final, due to good draw in previous rounds, so noone expected they'll be competitive.

Previously, first part of first division finished with Dorćol again won all of their games, but Red star will be the ones who'll target champions during autumn season and probable Grand Final.

In the second division, White Rabbits (team from Republika Srpska) is doing fine, they are currently at the top of North Conference ladders, while Cup runners-up Soko are likely to win South Conference.

U18s also played their part of the season and now they turn to representative obligations: Origin Cup, test v Italy U18s, summer camp and Youth festival in Belgrade in August (England Midlands U18s, Ukraine U18s and Germany U18s confirmed their participation so far). At the same time U16s will play their own festival also in Belgrade with participation list not yet closed.

Serbia U20s already have scheduled fixture v Czech Republic on the last weekend of June. Czechs are warming up for European Bowl and Serbs are testing up and coming players who are not in the full international squad, but are overaged for junior national team. the same age restricted team will play Hungary national team later in the summer.

During summer it might happen for some teams play their postponed games from spring season, but it is hard to believe, because the weather conditions are already so hot and the most of clubs "released" their players on holidays.

 

[dorcolrugby]

Last weekend Serbian Armed Forces played in Colchester (England) and Serbia U20s played in Vrchlabi (Czech Rep.), but this weekend was even better.
Three different Serbian rugby league teams played yesterday (Saturday, 6th July) at three different locations in Europe:
- Serbian Armed Forces national team played v New Zealand in Colchester (England),
- Serbian U18s played v Italy U18s in Este (Italy),
- Belgrade City IX played at Pardubice 9s international torunaments in Pardubice (Czech Republic).

All three locations are outside Serbia, so I wonder if this is the new record in rugby league World. I know that BARLA sides go to different places, but I don't know if GB/England representative or regional sides played three games during the same day at different countries.

 

[crimpo]

Just another illustration of why Serbia are the poster boys among the 'smaller RL nations'. Well done Dorcol

 

[Boston13s]

We have an impressive Serbian named Nikola Vasic playing with us this summer while he is on work placement here in Waltham, Massachusetts. Due to work he's been unable to make practices but he's been taking weekends off to play in our games. I believe he plays for Red Star in Serbia and we hope he can push for national squad selection when he returns home.

Before he arrived in the US in May he had only played 16 games of rugby league but he certainly has some good skills and is big, strong and tough.

 

[deluded pom?]

Last weekend Serbian Armed Forces played in Colchester (England) and Serbia U20s played in Vrchlabi (Czech Rep.), but this weekend was even better.
Three different Serbian rugby league teams played yesterday (Saturday, 6th July) at three different locations in Europe:
- Serbian Armed Forces national team played v New Zealand in Colchester (England),
- Serbian U18s played v Italy U18s in Este (Italy),
- Belgrade City IX played at Pardubice 9s international torunaments in Pardubice (Czech Republic).

All three locations are outside Serbia, so I wonder if this is the new record in rugby league World. I know that BARLA sides go to different places, but I don't know if GB/England representative or regional sides played three games during the same day at different countries.

What was the score of the U18s game dorcol?

 

[dorcolrugby]

Serbia won 26-10 (HT:10-6)

If you have an facebook account, you can follow almost all Serbian scores on ragbiliga.rs page (link:https://www.facebook.com/pages/ragbiligars/114955005196655?fref=ts). The news they advertise are from Serbian-language website, but the score updates are always in Serbian and English.

 

[deluded pom?]

Thanks dorcol.

 

[dorcolrugby]

We missed some updates like U18s Festival (Serbia, Germany, England Midlands), national team game v Italy in European Shield, tour to France (national team, U18s and Belgrade select), but I believe that everyone was informed through various Facebook and Twitter posts or RLEF site.

The latest is that First Division is finished on Saturday, with Dorcol won it again. They defeated Red Star 32-8 in what was thought to be the game where RS can stop Dorcol's domination. It turned out to be Dorcol's easiest win this year and well deserved champions title. The streak is now extended to 12th consecutive title.

We still have some games to be played (Second Division semifinals and final, U18s final,...) and to think about next season.

 

[miguel de cervantes]

How do the other clubs feel about Dorcol's domination? It must surely be a little discouraging?

It was good to see the Serbians in Avignon decked out in their gear. A pity the game wasn't a little more interesting for you guys.

 

[dorcolrugby]

Sorry for slow response, miguel de cervantes!

The other clubs are aware that Dorcol has bigger tradition, better trained and more balanced team throughout the past years and, maybe the most important, it is much better organized club than the others.

Despite the FRAv NZ game was decided early, I'm sure the boys had a lot of fun and enjoyed being the part of spectacle. Probably, the only thing that missing was some French response to NZ's quality.