7 segments that would revive Serbian rugby

We decided to create a series of 7 articles where they would give suggestions on how the steep decline of domestic rugby could be stopped and finally start to heal.

The month of November in rugby brings the joy of autumn test matches of the world’s best national teams. We cannot share that joy with the state of domestic rugby, which is very difficult, some would say more difficult than ever, but we would disagree with that. The national selection is in a losing streak. We do not have a domestic rugby 15 competition, instead we play developmental rugby 10 tournaments, where only two teams competed in the last tournament.

The senior teams do not train, none of the teams did any preparations before the start of the season, and what would they do when the meeting related to the competition was held at the end of August or the beginning of September. Most clubs hold training sessions at the same time with players of all ages, which is quite disastrous if you want to do more intense contact during training.

There are fewer and fewer players, fewer and fewer coaches, fewer and fewer referees, fewer and fewer delegates, less and less talk about rugby. The former pillars of rugby in Serbia, Partizan and BRK Crvena Zvezda, are in a very difficult situation. Partizan is not participating in the competition in any category for the second year in a row. At the beginning of the year, BRK Crvena Zvezda took part in the first tournament in rugby 10, and performed in the younger categories, but they do not hold training sessions regularly. Admittedly, they have big problems related to the field and club premises with JP Ada Ciganlija, where we sincerely hope that the process will ultimately end positively in their favor. Of the other clubs, Dinamo has a senior team, even though they have won the Serbian U18 Junior Championship for several years in a row. This year, Vojvodina competed in the Serbian Championship in rugby 7 as well as in some tournaments in rugby 10, but not this fall. The same is true for Loznica, which performed in the spring part. Kruševac achieves continuity of performances throughout the year, but they also do not have a team that could compete in rugby 15. Torpedo from Petrovac na Mlava plays rugby 13 in the senior competition and it is very difficult that he will return to the competition here. The only team that is stable is the RK Rad team, which will have a large influx of players from younger categories. That’s the situation in senior rugby in a nutshell.

Photo: Vanja Bejin

The situation is no better in the competition of younger categories, where most clubs do not have the required number of players to start the matches, or they are short on the number of players. Rugby 15 is not played in the younger categories, that is, in Serbia this year, with the exception of the national team, not a single official match in rugby 15 was played in any category, which is a catastrophic fact. However, to make things not so bad, most clubs hold regular training sessions in the younger categories, and it is not too far to improve the situation. We think that with a good plan, good operational work in the field and implementation, the situation can be drastically improved in a short time. A good organization with a quality long-term plan and operational work on the ground can achieve a lot.

What are the suggestions for improving rugby in Serbia?

We decided to publish a series of articles on that topic, because each segment needs to be fixed and actively worked on. First of all, you need to do good planning and you have to communicate with everyone. With us, no one plans anything in advance and does not communicate, that’s why misunderstandings happen very often, which lead to the fact that a project is not completed to the end. We are convinced that no one alive knows what the results goals of the Serbian national team are in the next 5 years. But let’s not go into science fiction, but let’s focus on the article itself.

Photo: Vanja Bejin

So, in the coming period, we will publish 7 articles that will deal with the following topics:

1 │ U14s – the foundation of the development of Serbian rugby

2 │ Restoration of senior club rugby

3 │ U16s and U18s play 15-a-side rugby

4 │ New competition system

5 │ Establishing a system of quality work of the national team

6 │ Promotion, marketing, rugby content in the media space

7│ Education, staffing, volunteers and parents

For each of these 7 titles, we will issue a separate text, where we would present how we see that the current situation can be improved. How can the decline be stopped and how can we finally move forward. We hope you like our ideas, that’s why we invite you to give your opinion and comments.