Serbia in a losing streak
If we look at the last 5 matches, we can say that we are in a big losing streak. We even suffered defeats in three matches at home. Of those 5 defeats, we lost twice to Moldova, once to Bulgaria, once to Turkey and once to the French Army. What is very problematic is that we lost all the matches quite convincingly. The closest we came was against Turkey, where we lost by only 9 points. In not a single match were we close, that is, in possession of the deficit.
And that decline was manifested in the last two matches. In the first against the French Army, which we lost 64-0 and the second against Moldova 31-3, with a total point difference of 3-95 and -92 respectively. And we scored only one penalty from more than 40 meters. For two matches in front of the home crowd, this is a disastrous result.
Excellent conditions at the Železnika stadium, but reduced audience interest
The conditions at the FK Železnik stadium are excellent in our opinion. We didn’t have the opportunity to see from the player’s point of view what the dressing rooms are like, but from the audience’s point of view, we had everything we needed. You have a covered stadium with seats. The field looked great. You have a scoreboard where you can track the exact time and score. You have a cafe where you can refresh yourself with a hot or cold drink. However, Železnik is not a place that is known for rugby, and therefore there were not too many spectators. Just a little over 100, we would dare to say about 150. If we were old-fashioned rugby workers with a tendency to misrepresent reality, we would have written that there were 300-350 people.

What was definitely missing was the holding of the junior category tournament, with organized viewing of the national team match. There were almost no young rugby players to watch the Serbian national team. We don’t know why it is no longer a practice, we assume that the problem is the number of dressing rooms, but then again, it could have been played in another place near the stadium and children could come to the game to watch. I guess the point is to have as many fans and audiences as possible.
National anthem smess
It is a great honor for every player to play for his national team. In the preparation before the match, every aspect is important, including the singing of the national anthem. Everyone has their own rhythm where the highlight is the anthem of the country you represent and for which you are ready to give everything on the field. And then total chaos. First, the match organizer plays the Romanian national anthem instead of the Moldovan national anthem. Moldovan players are visibly annoyed, they turn their backs on the organizer and the audience. However, an apology arrives and this time the Moldovan national anthem is played.
Then we couldn’t wait for the Serbian national anthem to start. And chaos again. The frenzied organizer played God of Justice while the national anthem of Moldova was playing, two songs playing at the same time. It’s like you’re at the Exit between two stages. Instead of our national team members singing the national anthem emotionally, people laughed, some were furious, and some were visibly disappointed. If you publicly say that every player should play for the national team, then try to organize the game properly. State symbols must not be played with.
Serbia is two points behind in the first part of the match
Serbia entered the match well. If we exclude the scrum, where the Moldovans destroyed us from the very start, we managed to be very combative in other segments. First of all, we mean the defensive out and the movement in the corridor of Relja Pećanac and the lifter. Unlike the match against the French Army, where our jumpers were static, now we really disrupted the Moldavian out.
And exactly in the 9th minute of the match, after the Moldovan throw-in, Relja put pressure on the Moldavian jumper, the ball went out. Later we got tangled up in our car, but the referee called a penalty against Moldova. Alekdandar Andrić placed the ball diagonally more than 40 meters from the goal. He recalled the days when he was in full form and converted a very difficult shot. To the delight of the crowd, Serbia took a 3-0 lead.
In those moments, we were a better rival than our opponent. In particular, Igor Marinković and Uroš Pucar stood out in defense, who were fantastic. Kiprijan Đorić and Marinković also had several good breakthroughs. In the attack, Andrić created excellently, who had several excellent moves and shots. Everything smelled like an essay. However, the Moldovans made sure that it wasn’t all down to us, who in the 20th minute had perhaps the most beautiful action of the game. They had a scrum in their 22 meters, the ball came to Mihailo Daikon who took a great kick and caught that same shot, pulled back about ten meters, drew a defensive player and assisted Iona Kopitov who scored an essay, although it seemed to us that the ball fell to him, still the reff allowed the try.
In 30th minute Predrag Vraneš and Alen Ćosović entered the game, so automatically the scrum became more competitive. We had problems but not so much. But that’s why Pećanac continued to terrorize the opponent’s outfield. And it totally disrupted their rhythm. Just unbelievable, he did that to them the whole first half. This is perhaps the main reason why the first half ended with only two points ahead of the Moldovans.
Moldova punishes every mistake we make in the second half
We opened the second half much better. It was seen that we are motivated to finally show how much we know and can do. We had the best opportunity to score a goal in the 43rd minute when Janko Zemun Milinković made a great move, followed by Sale Andrić, where we won a good part of the field. Then we switched the action to the wing, and after two phases, the ball reached Đorić, who was stopped a few centimeters from the goal. Incredible defense from Moldova. That essay would completely turn the tide of the match.
We continued our attacks. And then a shock in the 45th minute, after our bad box kick, the ball comes to the Moldovan player who pulls a few meters, offloads the scrum player who is in full speed, who takes about ten meters until he is stopped by Velibor Srećković. The Moldovans quickly form a ruck and send the ball to the left wing, we did not position ourselves well and Adrian Kostru uses the space and scores an essay under the post. Sergeiu Vicol successfully converts for 12-3. Then finally, in the 47th minute, Danijel Stojanović, who is one of our most dominant players, enters the game. Which immediately stabilizes our game in contact.
And in 65th minute we had a scrum in front of Moldova’s 22-meter line. This time the scrum was on level, we had a clean ball, but now the already overtired line makes a mistake, after a bad pass a player from Moldova runs to the ball and shoots it, after that thanks and scores an essay under the post. With a safe shot, the guests went to 19-3. And then the Lithuanian referee, with the assistance of the Moldovan assistant referee, gives a yellow card to Stojanović, after he came into contact with the Moldovan player with the ball, and that’s how the game was decided. Moldova scores two more essays by the end of the match for a final score of 31-3.
The Serbian national team: Igor Marinković, Miljan Nikolic, Dragan Matijević, Relja Pećanac, Uroš Jevđenijević, Stanislav Ljubičić, Uroš Pucar, Kiprijan Đorić, Janko Zemun Milinković, Aleksandar Andić 3, Velibor Srećković, Igor Gajić, Dragan Kokaković, Milan Vesković, Igor Dejanović , Vladimir Đukić, Alen Ćosović, Ivan Rodić, Uroš Jončić, Mirko Ranković, Dušan Jocić, Danijel Stojanović, Predrag Vraneš.
5 takeaways
The fantastic Uroš Pucar
What a player. What a defensive dominator. What a feeling for the game. Crank player, true third line. He was everywhere on the field both offensively and defensively. One of the few players who cleared the ruck in a high rhythm and was fantastic in the accompaniment. Defensively, he was everywhere, knocking down big Moldovans. An incredible talent who is only 20 years old. He is a player who makes a difference. We can be happy to have him in the team.

Serbia's slow game, sluggish crabs and a disastrous offensive out
In the announcement article, we said that we have to play fast against Moldova. Crabs must be under 3 seconds if we want to catch their scrum in mismech situations. We didn’t have that, the support was generally very bad. The game system is totally wrong in relation to what we have and in relation to the opponent. And there is complete responsibility on coach Milović, who scouted the Moldovans incorrectly and set the game to be more physical than smart.
On the other hand, the attacking out was criminal. The out is something that a good coach can fix and improve. Unfortunately, we didn’t have that. And when we won the space with a shot from the penalty, we couldn’t win the outs and we didn’t have offensive continuity in the game. Coaching the car also takes a toll on the selector who has not been able to fix the car for two and a half years. The Moldovans were not too aggressive on the defense car. Total potency and a hundred missed opportunities.
The reverse effect of the "Serbian bomb squad"
We had 8 scrum players on the bench. Well, Uroš Jončić can also play on the line. At the very beginning of the match, we did not put in the best set-up that could match the scrum players of Moldova. Do not forget that the line players were up to the task in the first part of the match. But almost 50% of our line doesn’t train rugby and hasn’t had a rugby 15 game for a long time, and it’s normal to get tired. We didn’t have replacements for the backs. In the end, third line players Đorić and Ljubičić played on the wings. We should ask the coach who selects the players why this happened.

In the announcement article, we questioned the fact that Milović left Stojanović on the bench. We said then that we would analyze whether it was a tactical ruse or a coach’s vanity. We came to the conclusion that it is a coach’s vanity, because Stojanović showed his worth from the moment he entered the game. A player who is 20 years old and who is so dominant on the field must not be at the mercy of the coach. Such players must develop and play. By the way, let’s remind you, Milović inserted Stojanović to play the post against the French Army, even though he has not played the post since the U14 pioneers. Although it was brought to his attention, he did not listen to anyone and expelled his own. The effect of this was the dominance of the French Army in the scrum, where it is fortunate that no one was injured. After that, Milović decided not to include Stojanović in the team, in order to force out his opinion that he is not currently at the level of a starter in the third line. And what the rugby hipsters would say is complete nonsense. And we will always point it out, whether someone likes it or not.
There are no Dinamo players, Kruševac, but neither is Dusan Jovanović
Dinamo and Kruševac are teams that constantly participate in the senior competition in Serbia. And it is simply impossible that coach Milović did not see players from those two clubs who could play for the national team. We even published an article on which 10 players made an impression on us after the first ten tournament. In Dinamo and Kruševac, you have several players who can play at the representative level without any problem. Even a few players who did not make it into the article can play a useful role in the national team.
We were shocked why Dušan Jovanović, who plays in the post position, is not on the list, who is one of the few players who came out of the younger categories in the last 10 years, who can replace Vladimir Đukić and Predrag Vraneš in the right way. Vladimir and Predrag are in their late rugby years and we must already have a good plan for who will replace them. If our plan is not to include young players on the roster, then we have totally missed the point. It seems that we have no plan for the future, and as far as we can see, for the present as well.
A fantastic experience for young players and the kind of games we need
If we believed that we didn’t have a team for big things, we wouldn’t have signed up this much. We firmly believe that we have a quality that needs to be honed. It is only necessary to organize the work with the national team well and plan in advance. Such matches should be used to the maximum. If we don’t attack the result, let’s give the youngsters a chance to prove themselves.
The young players have shown themselves in the right way, and we can count on a positive future, but only if vanity and bad work are removed. If we only look at the young players who have not yet entered their prime rugby years, then we have serious potential to create huge value with the right investment.

There were definitely very positive things in the scrum. Igor Marinković plays at the highest level, he is a player who was born in 1998 and who has yet to enter the best years of rugby. Dragan Marijević is 2000 years old and has a lot of potential to develop into a quality pillar. In the second line, there is an excellent native of Peć who was born in 2001 and who plays as if he is 30 years old. TU is Uroš Jevđenijević who diligently collects experiences at the age of 20. Uroš Pucar and Danije Stojanović are the same as Jevđenijević in 2004, and they represent a huge force in the third line. Đorić is 2000 years old and every year he improves incredibly, and he has yet to enter his prime.
There is still more to say about the line, Andrić was born in 1998 and he needs as many games as possible. When he was winning titles with Partizan, he was fantastic, but the last two years, when there is no Partizan, we haven’t seen him on the pitch either, which is a big shame. He should enter the best years of rugby and his experience should be used by the Serbian national team. Igor Gajić and Milan Vesković in 2006 and we can say that the national team got two very high-quality young players who have already gained a lot of respect in senior rugby. Dragan Kokanović is a player who has been a member of the national team for several cycles. The player born in 2005 has a huge potential to develop into a very high-quality center, who is ready to play at a high level.
When we add to that all the young players from Dinamo and Kruševac who for some reason did not get a chance, when we add a bunch of youngsters who have yet to graduate from the junior categories. Add to that the experienced players from abroad who are already the bearers of our team’s game. With the right leadership and a long-term plan, we have a team that is in the middle of the Trophy Division. But that’s all theory. In order to get there, it is necessary to invest a lot of effort, care, love, harmony and knowledge.