Рагби је спорт који ће вам пружити прегршт доживљаја, занимљивих прича и незаборавних сећања. As the biggest collective sport in the world, its most valuable resource is precisely the people whose great passion is rugby. You won’t find many players like Milan Milićević, whose career is so rich and varied, but also long-lived. A player who was educated through the junior categories of the Kruševac Rugby Club, and who is living proof that investing in the youth department pays off.
Milan is above all an athlete, a graduate of PE, a man who definitely knows the recipe for longevity in a very demanding sport like rugby. He is over 40 years old, but he is still one of the leaders of the game in RK Vojvodina, where he plays as an flyhalf, and as far as we are concerned, he manages the game very well and makes the right decisions. Looks like it’s 1980. age appropriate for rugby longevity. Anyway, enjoy Milan’s rugby story, it’s our great pleasure to have had the opportunity to interview him.
Rugby.rs: When did you start playing rugby? How did you find out about rugby?
Milan Milićević: I started training rugby in September 1994. . I think he was 20th and some September. In the same way that I animated the children in schools afterwards, Slaviša Milenković, who was also my first coach until 2000, animated me in physical education for rugby. . I was 8th grade back then and it was the cadet category, where rugby was played on half the field, it seems to me 10 on 10. In the phase of the class where we “played” rugby (like touch rugby), I passed a couple of times in a hurry, and so I decided to go to the first training session as well.
Rugby.rs: You are part of the RK Kruševac rugby school, how strong were the youth teams in Kruševac?
Milan Milićević: In October 1994. was the first tournament, in Kruševac, where I scored the first try, i.e. score as we Kruševljani used to say for a point in rugby. I know that Farkaš passed the ball to me and that I went through the hole. I’m not sure, but I think it was against the RK Žarkovo cadets.
The biggest success in the younger categories of Kruševac was the title in 1995/96 in cadets. In the competition between Partizan, Dinamo and Žarkovo, we had a score of 5 wins and one loss (against Žarkov). That title was taken away from us for reasons unknown to me. But I still brought a trophy to the club after twenty years, on which was written “Champions of Yugoslavia cadets RK Kruševac” – a trophy that no one wanted to take after a tournament on Ada, I took it, took it to a jewelry store and engraved on the plate what I have already wrote. It is also a success that as juniors we were the backbone of the junior national team of Yugoslavia in 1999. . I think 6 of us played in the first lineup that year at the “D” group championship in Geneva/Nyon where we had two wins (Slovenia, Hungary) and a loss to Tunisia 21-14. I scored an try against them when Marko Kapor give long ball to the wing (me). Also, in Kruševac that March, we played a friendly match against Bulgaria as part of the preparations, we also beat them, and I gave them an try with the assistance of Marko Milosavljević.
Rugby.rs: What is your best memory while playing for the younger categories?
Milan Milićević: I have already answered the third question, but I would add – the best moment in the younger categories was when I gave 2 tries in the last 2 minutes to the KBRK team at Ada, and so with RK Kruševac we beat the host in the cadet competition and reversed the result.
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Rugby.rs: You were part of the national selections in the younger categories, as well as in the senior national team, which event will you remember for the rest of your life?
Milan Milićević: I didn’t play much in the senior national team, only a few appearances. Somehow, private life situations happened like that, and to be honest, I wasn’t very motivated to play because of the frequent lobbying in the national team. Also, an injury in the 2006 Serbian Cup Final on the Radnički field at NBGD (I tore knee ligaments) when I was in top form and played for the national team in both 15 and 7 rugby, affected my performances in the national team. However, that year was also marked by the most beautiful experiences in the national jersey before the described injury. In the match against Belgium in Veliki Crljani, I intercepted the ball and scored an try in the center, under the post. We took the lead but ended up losing the game. In that year, the rise of Belgium began. I was the captain of the rugby 7 team where we participated in two tournaments in Split and Budapest, where the cup was awarded to me by the legendary Zinzan Brooke, a great player.
Rugby.rs: In rugby mythology, you are known as a player who played for all the clubs in Serbia, which clubs did you play for?
Milan Milićević: It would be easier and shorter to write which clubs I didn’t play for, which are Dorćol and Smederevo, the reason – they didn’t stay long in rugby 15. I performed for all clubs – chronologically: Kruševac, Partizan, BRK, Pobednik/Rad, Dinamo, Loznica and Vojvodina. I was in Partizan for the longest time, in the period from 2000. to 2008. , ie 9 years. Of course, always, and whenever the paperwork allows, I will perform for Kruševac, like last year in the second league. By the way, in that club, I am first on the list of points scored, and I think I am second in terms of the number of games played, although I do not play standard for RK Kruševac. I played for Dinamo and Loznica for one season each and then won the second league with them, as well as twice with Vojvodina and Pobednik 2. So I don’t think anyone has won the second league more times than me, I think the total number is six.
I played one game each in the tournaments for Petrovgrad and Žarkovo, but it was not with the registration for that club, but I scored essays in those games. Abroad I played 3 games for RFK Ruilslip in 2005 (England) and 6 games for RK Lincoln Park in 2008. and in 2011. from Chicago (United States of America).
Rugby.rs: Although you are already an veteran, you managed to tackle the Serbian national team player and save sure points at the last Serbian Championship in Rugby 7, tell us the secret of your physical fitness?
Milan Milicevic: I am physically active all the time, for example, now I work a season as a lifeguard, so I swim and dive more than others, I often do exercises without external load (push-ups, lunges, pull-ups, half-squats, sit-ups…), then we PE’s have a sports culture to we always play other sports recreationally (basketball, football…) but it is far from serious training. I play rugby more and more on “will power”, on experience and on “the maximum at a given moment”. So was that moment at the Rad stadium, I simply made a decision, assessed the situation and started to sprint. In those situations (50-60m run) line players are always more ready than scrum players, so my goal was to reach him and be in contact as it turns out. And everything came together as it should – during the contact, the ball fell to the opposing player.
Rugby.rs: Until when do you plan to play active rugby?
Milan Milićević: If I could choose the end of my rugby career, it would be September 2024 – exactly 30 years of rugby would be from the first contact with the ball. However, there are more and more private and legal situations, obligations based on which it is difficult to plan anything.
Rugby.rs: Why are you called Vrabac, how did you get that nickname?
Milan Milićević: That’s my nickname from my happy childhood, from kindergarten. At the performance, I recited the song “Wedding of Vrabac Podunavac”… I remember that I had stage fright when I was alone on stage, I didn’t know how to start and my friends spontaneously started shouting “Vrabac Podunavac”… For a while he got lost that nickname, and then it became active again when I started playing rugby (8th grade), because a boy who was in the kindergarten group with me also went to training, and his association was that I was “flying around the field”, because I was the fastest in the club. The nickname stuck in the world of rugby and at PE studies.
Rugby.rs: What are your hobbies and interests outside of sports?
Milan Milićević: Considering that I studied PE studies, it is clear that I like sports. Before, it was more common, but now I play 3-on-3 basketball or indoor soccer a couple of times a year… I also like the already mentioned swimming, scuba diving, so I combined it with my work, so for the past few seasons I have been working on Ada as a lifeguard through summer. Otherwise, I follow the “big” matches in Serbian football, such as the derby, the final of the Serbian Cup and, of course, Napredak from Kruševac. As well as our clubs in European competitions…
Rugby.rs: What would you say to young players in Serbia?
Milan Milićević: I can and want to tell young players to first understand what rugby is, what kind of sport it is in Serbia, and if they have physical predispositions, to plan to play rugby abroad. In this way, they will progress as players, and Serbia will also benefit from them, above all at the level of the national team. You have to be realistic in everything, including understanding rugby both in Serbia and abroad. I hope that the Federation will also do something more through new programs, organize camps to keep young players (cadets, juniors) in our sport, first of all through a higher quality senior league with more games. Every game is a new experience, a new rugby story… And always, always, when you have and when you don’t have time for a rugby game, come and play… Because only with as many games as possible can they become more complete players and love rugby even more
Rugby.rs: In your opinion, what is the range of young players in Serbia?
Milan Milićević: I am sure, and this can be seen from our position on the FIRE ranking list, the group we are in, that the quality of rugby in Serbia has declined compared to 15 years ago. Then, both as a country and as clubs, we were ranked higher than now. We played twice in the final of the Regional League (RK Rad) and the final of the competition before the Regional League against Nada in Split (RK Partizan) – today there are no Serbian clubs in the regional league. As a national team, we were in a higher rank, now we are ranked a rank and maybe two lower. We had 4 clubs that were 15-20 points apart, now it’s only Rad and Partizan, and all the others are more than 60 points away from them. As a result, a maximum of 15 players from Serbia play for the national team, the rest are from abroad. It’s good team management, but also a representation of where we are as a domestic league. I would like to be wrong, but I think that we will be in this level of the competition for a long time because until now, years ago, a deep “gap” was created without young, quality players, and there are also quality seniors who should soon finish playing in the national team… Also, realistically, there are only 5 clubs in Serbia, of which only 2-3 play more than 10 games in a season, and that is very little for the eventual progress of rugby in Serbia.
