The Eagles' winning streak ended
Every series has its end, so ours is also terminated. Let us remind you that we were in a series of 6 victories until the defeat in Moldova. Given that the hosts are much better placed than us on the World Rugby Federation’s rugby list, this defeat caused a minimal loss of points where we remained at 72nd place where we have been until now Defeat doesn’t have to mean anything until the end of the competition, because two more matches await us. Next year, we first meet with Bulgaria on the 13th of April in the guest house, to welcome Turkey a week later.
Big fluctuations in the composition of the Serbian national team
At whatever level the matches of the national selections are played, you must not have too many oscillations in the composition of the national team. When we compare the lineups of the last two matches, even 8 players who appeared in the first line-up against Bosnia and Herzegovina did not appear in Moldova. If you count the bench as well, it would rise to 12, which is more than half of the team. These are too big changes that even the TIER 1 selections would not be able to compensate for, and not Serbia, which has a limited number of senior players.
The winning mentality is not lost
Every game of the national team is very important, and it is even more important what conclusions and lessons we have drawn. We must not forget that every match should be used to learn something new, so that the team develops and progresses. We are particularly pleased with the fact that we are a very intelligent team that is able to adapt to the situation on the field. Specifically, we are referring to the Moldavian outpost and the pier after the outpost. Where from the second half we reacted and prevented the opponent’s goal by not defending it by pushing.
We must especially mention that we reacted extremely positively to the leadership of the opponent and reduced the score to less than an essay difference in the second part of the match. It is true that we lasted until 54th minutes to be extremely competitive. If we had hit the penalty and the conversion after the essay, they would have come within a point of the deficit. And all this against a team that was extremely dominant in the scrum and outside. Which is quite an extraordinary situation. But we still didn’t last until the end. We can be proud of our players who were brave and who represented Serbia in the best possible way.
Moldova very dominant in statics in the first part of the match
Moldova very dominant in statics in the first part of the match We played well with our hands and were quite agile, especially in the game without the ball. And already at 4th minute, a chance appeared from a possible situation to score. The referee awarded a penalty for us, and Nikola Stanković was accurate for a 3-0 lead. We were not too happy because the result changed in the 10th minute . After our error because we shot the ball that was returned in 22 meters directly into the outfield, the referee awarded an outfield from the place where the ball was kicked. The Moldovans certainly won the lineout and blew us away in maul. But the referee returned the penalty to 5 of our tryline, while Janko Zemun Milinković received a yellow card. The home team blew us away in the scrum, where the referee eventually awarded a penalty kick. Not even a few minutes passed when the Moldovans had a throw-in right in front of our 22 meters. This time they surprised everyone in the stadium and quickly kicked the ball out of the box towards the line. Excellent play with the hands, so that after ten phases they broke through on the wing and scored an essay for 12-3.
It seemed at that moment that Moldova was going to run over us. But don’t forget that Serbia won 6 matches in a row by chance. In those moments, we were equal opponents. We played very well in the field and were very disciplined. That resulted in the 33rd minute when Stanković was again safe from the penalty and reduced the score to 12-6. At 37th minute, the Moldovans were again excellent in attack, where after several phases they scored a 17-6 a new try. What was a bit unbelievable was that a Moldovan player was lying on the floor injured and the Romanian referee allowed the game to continue almost over him. Which could seriously compromise the safety of the players on the floor. Fortunately, nothing serious happened.
Better adaptation of Serbia in the second part of the match
From the very beginning, Serbia adapted to Moldova’s model. An agreement was made that there would be no pushing, and that the player would be knocked down as soon as he left the formation of the maul. That’s how we managed to defend ourselves. We tried with the reserve players to stabilize the scrum a little but we didn’t have much success. As in the first part, we started much better, and we were the first to reach the try after a great breakthrough by Žulijen Matijašević, who performed a slalom through the defense of Moldova. We were in the game again and came close to 6 points behind. In that period, we missed both a penalty and a conversion, otherwise they would have been even closer. The Moldovans saw that the devil had taken the joke and attacked more aggressively. And already at 54th minute they scored another try with a successful conversion for 24-11. The Eagles did not have enough strength to turn around. But it’s amazing that we were still there as a result. However, the new yellow card received by Danijel Stojanović could not save us from the guests’ new scoring. In 72th minute the Moldovans had a scrum a few meters from our goal, they routinely pushed us into the goal and the referee played a new penalty goal against us. That was enough for the Moldovans to win 31-11 with a bonus point.
The composition of the Serbian national team: Igor Marinković, Uroš Jončić, Dragan Matijević, Relja Pećanac, Stefan Ivković, Kiprijan Đorić, Alen Ćosović, Danijel Stojanović, Janko Zemun Milinković, Aleksandar Đorđević, Dragan Konaković, Žulijen Matijašević 5, Nikola Stanković, Nemanja Stošić, Igor Dejanović , Vladimir Janićijević, Milan Trujkić, Uroš Jevđenijević, Stefan Simović, Stanislav Ljubičić, Ivan Nikolić, Nemanja Lazić, Petar Pavlović.
