3 takeaways
Consistency is always an advantage
Teams that play consistently are always ahead of teams that don’t have enough games. The matches of the ½ finals of the Serbian Cup confirmed this in the best way. In this season, Partizan and Rad played a total of 9 games each, when we add the national team commitments, we get a very good number of activities and games that were played. On the other hand, BRK Crvena Zvezda did not play a single match before the Serbian Cup this fall. Also, Vojvodina did not have a game in XVs rugby. They have appeared in 3 rugby 10 tournaments this half season. When you don’t play regularly you are out of shape, which is always clear in a sport like rugby. It’s just like that.
Problematic number of players in all teams
It is not new in our rugby, but it is definitely something that is eye-popping and worrying in the long run. And that is the number of players per club in the senior competition. In the minutes, we rarely see more than 20 players in the protocol. If it’s like this at the matches, we can only imagine how many players there are in the training sessions of the senior teams. If you do not have quality training with a large number of players, you will hardly prepare well for the game. If we analyze the teams that played in the ½ final matches, we will get a very alarming situation.
During the season, RK Rad worked non-stop with the number of players on the bench. They never had a full bench in the matches. But we have to take it with a grain of salt because they have a large number of injured players, some of them are even out for a long time like Mirko Ranković and Uroš Babić, and some veterans like Miladin Živanova have been injured for a long time. But Rad has a lot of players from the youth academy who perform or are on the threshold of the first team. This season, there are players who were in 2004 годиште broke through the ice and established themselves in the team.
RK Vojvodina, unlike Rad, does not have players who came from the youth academy. They did not play in the A league this season, but continued the competition in the B group of the Serbian Championship. Key players from previous seasons either got injured or reduced their training activities. One of the pillars of the team for many years was Slobodan Matijević, who suffered a serious injury last year. However, the people of Novi Sad have an influx of young people, we are primarily referring to the players of RK Pannonia who have already made several appearances for the club from Novi Sad.
RK Partizan has a strong core of players who are entering their best rugby years. Along with them, there are a couple of younger players, but also quite a large number of experienced players. Unfortunately, the black and whites don’t have a youth field from which to push new players into the first team. Partizan’s rugby school used to be among the strongest in the country, and all current players have obviously successfully passed it. Partizan had an extremely active half-season where they played the largest number of matches. Also, they made a collaboration with RK Dorćol, who loaned them several players, and with several players from rugby league, they can put together a very high-quality team.
BRK Crvena Zvezda has very young and quality players that it needs to develop, nurture and, more importantly, retain. The team from Ada Ciganlija also provides a lot of Serbian national team members, but this year they had a problem with the number of players, which resulted in their withdrawal from the Serbian Championship. But the most important thing is that Zvezda has a youth school, and a quality one at that, so that an influx of young people to the first team is expected within a few years. But above all, consistency and a large number of games are needed so that young people can develop and establish themselves in the team. Zvezda did a good job for the Serbian Cup, where several veterans gathered together to create a very high-quality team together with the youngsters. In the match with Partizan, several injured players were missing who were the main players of the game in the past period, even the Serbian national team.
Grand Finale
Oh yeah, we finally get the grand finale. What an end to the season it will be. The two teams that showed the most this year will close the season in a hopefully spectacular game. We still don’t know the exact date of the performance as well as the place where it will be played, but we will announce it as soon as we know. Basically, there is no way to miss the game of the year, everyone who plays rugby and loves rugby will be at the game.
Reports from the ½ finals of the Serbian Cup
Rad is in good shape
The Građevinari are definitely continuing at a high pace. Already after 22th minute on the scoreboard, the score was 22-0 in favor of Rad. And all this under the direction of Danijel Stojanović and Alens Ćosović, who continue the strong pace they play throughout the season. The first part of the match was one-sided and completely dedicated to Rad. Vojvodina only scored, as the score at halftime shows, and it was 55-0 in favor of the home team. Novi Sad had no answer for Rad’s furious play, although they were missing several standard players.
The tempo of the game slowed down in the second part of the match. Everything was already decided, so neither of them were very motivated. But the most important thing is that the match was completed without injuries. Although we announced that the match would be more even, it was not the case. However, in the end, Rad won with a score of 93-0, where Alen Ćosović dominated again in the position of the first center, in the end he scored 43 points. It is interesting that out of 15 players in the first lineup of the home team, there were as many as 12 melee players.
Match information
Venue King Peter I stadion
Date: 20.11.2022 .
Kickoff: 13:00h
Referee: Mihailo Marjanović
Asistant referee: Relja Bulajić
Assistant referee: Marija Stojsic
Match comessaionnaire: Goran Vuković
Temperature: Rain, 7C
Replay: sportuzivo
Squads:
RK Rad: Vladimir Đukić, Uroš Jončić 10, Predrag Vraneš, Uroš Jevđenijević, Branimir Petrović, Relja Pećanac 5, Danijel Stojanović 15, Marko Ristic, Srđan Božić 5, Marko Kapor, Milan Trujkić 5, Alen Ćosović 43, Vojin Karanović 5, Stanislav Ljubičić, Milan Rastovac 5, Stevan Nikolić, Boris Milojković, Mihajlo Samardjić, Nemanja Stošić.
RK Vojvodina: Miloš Maravić, Jovan Janićijević, Vladimir Janićijević, Zoran Janjić, Goran Porobić, Stefan Aksentijević, Lazar Davidović, Vukašin Vuković, Aleksa Jovanović, Milan Milićević, Petar Tešić, Marko Novosel, Petar Marković, Bogdan Mihajlović, Rajko Janković.
Partizan better in city derby
Unlike the first match, the second match was much more interesting. Partizan was definitely the favorite before the start of the match, which it showed on the field from the very beginning of the match. Partizan’s defense, which took advantage of Zvezda’s somewhat slower game, stood out in particular. They closed the center line of the red and whites, where they were forced to contact more than to play fast. Partizan’s third line did a tremendous job there, where Vukašin Medić, Boban Janković and Stefan Đorđević were exceptional in the center of defense.
That’s exactly what happened in the 4th minute of the match, when aggressive defense forced the opponent to make a mistake, i.e. to pass forward. After the scrum, the ball was picked up by Đorđević, who was stopped by Zvezda players with a penalty. After that, Partizan shot at lineout at 22m line of opponents. They won that lineout and concentrated Zvezda’s defense on the other side of the field with quick passes. They returned the ball, which reached Ivan Spasenović, who was stopped a few meters from the goal, but Medić scored the goal from a pick and go action for a 5-0 lead.
Zvezda attacked and was extremely dangerous. Several times in the first part of the match, she was in the opponent’s 22 meters. But simply Stefan Đorđević was exceptional in ruck and breakdown, where he was an unsolvable enigma for Zvezda’s support. Essay spaces were quiet until the 25th minute, when Zvezda won their out, then kicked the ball into the Partizan field, where it was caught by Miloš Tamburić, who first feinted brilliantly and then won fifteen masters in passing. The ball quickly came out of the ruck to Aleksandar Andrić, who opened the ball in a flash to Aljoša Avramović, who received a pass at full speed and in space, where he had no trouble in one-on-one play to score a try for 10-0.
Partizan started furiously at the beginning of the second part of the match. The tempo was dictated by Andrić, who was everywhere on the field. The first is at 43th minute of the match, Partizan received a penalty from an apparent position. Andrić was extremely accurate and increased the score to 13-0. Already in the next attack, when Zvezda took a shot from the center, Partizan started even more decisively. After two phases, Borislav Radić saw a worse defensive setup around the ruck, he managed to win about twenty meters, where he employed Andrić with an excellent offload, who followed the action perfectly and finally scored an essay for 18-0.
Finally, Zvezda sped up the game and raised the tempo, thereby becoming more dangerous for the opponent. They had a determined Partizan defense against them, which is not a negligible fact. The rushes of Zvezda, who was very agile to make a turn, became more frequent. And finally at 62th minute Momčilo Kralj took the penalty and passed it to Karl Rasmunsen, who passed the offload to Miljan Nikolić, who made a great breakthrough and scored an essay. Danijel Kajan was sacure in the conversion for 18-7. A great fight was seen until the end of the match, but Partizan’s defense was too much of a challenge. In the end, Partizan deservedly qualified for the finals.
Match information
Venue: Ada Ciganlija
Date: 20.11.2022 .
Kickoff: 13:30h
Referee: Nemanja Babić
Asistant referee: Vladimir Radulović
Assistant referee: Marko Žeravica
Match comessionnaire: Stevan Ilijašević
Temperature: Rain, 7C
Replay: sportuzivo
Squads:
BRK Red Star: Ivan Rodić, Luka Jojić, Uroš Martinović, Vukašin Vitorović, Nikola Pumpalović, Miljan Nikolic, Karl Rasmunsen, Andrija Panić, Cedomir Vitorović, Momčilo Kralj, Vladimir Dedić, Aleksandar Đorđević, Dragan Kokanović, Igor Lučić, Danijel Kajan, Petar Pavlović, Strahinja Milošević, Aleksandre Heam.
RK Partizan: Oleg Babkin, Ivan Spasenović, Đorđe Preradojević, Slobodan Jovanović, Aleksandar Krstić, Vukašin Medić 5, Boban Janković, Stefan Đorđević, Borislav Radić, Aleksandar Andrić 8, Miloš Tamburić, Stefan Simović, Rajko Trifunović, Lazar Grubić, Aljoša Avramović 5 , Vuk Bošković, Velibor Srećković, Sergej Devetak, Ivan Nikolić, Andrej Šušak.
