In less then one week, the Conference 1 tournament in men’s and women’s competition will begin. As in previous seasons, the tournament will be held in Belgrade, at the King Peter I stadium or at the FK Rad na Banjica stadium, if it’s easier for you to find your way around. The Serbian national team only competes in the men’s competition, so we will cover only that part of the competition. The start of the tournament is scheduled for Friday the 9th of june when will tutnir be played in the women’s competition. In saturday of June 10, we are expecting a full-day program, that is, the end of the women’s tournament and the beginning of the men’s tournament. In Sunday 11th of june, mens tournaments final game were sceduled.
As for the competition system and the schedule, you can view it on the page of our website. What we have to add is that after the matches according to the current groups, other groups will be added and then new pairs will be formed which we hope to announce in due time. As a reminder, 9 teams are divided into 3 groups. In the first part of the competition, everyone will play two matches within their group. After that, new groups are formed and two more matches are played. Then the points are counted, the first three teams according to performance will form a group that will fight from 1. to 3rd place. Then the next three teams will form a group that will play for placement from 4th to 6th place and finally the last three teams will fight for placement from 7th place to 9th place.
What we are interested in is the reach of our national team. We have not been very famous in the last few years, so we feel that the time has come to make a very good result. We share the opinion with selector Marko Kapor, who is quite satisfied with what has been done on the repairs so far, which gives us reason to be satisfied.
However, our team does not have the pressure of having to win the tournament, our goal is next year and making a core to attack the first place. We won’t complain at all if that first place comes, but we prefer to go step by step.
We must mention that our national team members are very pleased with the support from the stands, which always gives them the wind at their backs and the motivation to give their best. So we hereby invite all rugby fans to come to the King Peter I stadium and support the Eagles at home. In addition to good rugby, there are plenty of accompanying activities that will enhance your enjoyment.
Rugby.rs: How satisfied are you during the preparations for the competition in Conference 1?
Marko Kapor: Due to club commitments, the preparations of the national team are at the very beginning of training. As for the administrative part, we organized everything on time and that kind of preparation was done at a high level.
Rugby.rs: Did you have the opportunity to see off some interesting players from the first tournament of the Serbian Rugby 7 Championship?
Marko Kapor: Of course. Interestingly, there were actually quite a few interesting players. In my notebook, there are eight players who have not played for the national team so far.
Rugby.rs: How much do you plan to give young players a chance?
Marko Kapor: That is the idea that I have been guided by since the beginning of my mandate. I expect a lot of players class 2004 and 2005 . in training and I hope they will enter the final 13 players who will perform at the championship. We are saddened by the injury of young Ivan Voštić, who already got a chance last year and who was supposed to be the leader of this generation of young players.
Rugby.rs: How important is the training culture for a young player to play at the European level?
Marko Kapor: The culture of training is important both in rugby and in other sports, I think that only through a large number of training sessions can we achieve better matches and, of course, results.
Rugby.rs: Without giving away tactical ideas, what will Serbia's game look like?
Marko Kapor: What I always ask from the team I coach is that they sacrifice themselves and give their best at all times. When those prerequisites are met, I believe that an objective result is reached, which is the most important for future progress.
Rugby.rs: Are reinforcements from abroad planned?
Marko Kapor: Yes, we are planning to invite three players from abroad. Kaspar Strugar, who plays for Henley Hawks, will come from England. Then, Janko Zemun Milinković from Italy who plays for Rugby Bergamo 1950 and finally there is Antoine Jovović who plays for the French Merignac Rugby.
Rugby.rs: At the very beginning of the competition, two very demanding games await us, against Turkey and Finland. How much can scouting and analysis of the opponent's play affect the final result in rugby sevens?
Marko Kapor: I believe that scouting and analysis are very important nowadays, unfortunately we did not have the opportunity to do the same because there was no competition where those national teams performed.
Rugby.rs: What do you think about the other national teams in the competition? Who are all the favorites to win the tournament?
Marko Kapor: The competition will definitely be as interesting as last year, and I would single out Turkey, Monaco and Norway as favorites.
Rugby.rs: What are the goals of the Serbian national team this year?
Marko Kapor: Looking at the playing staff we have and the fact that we didn’t have time to play a preparatory tournament, I think that it is realistic to keep a place in this group, which does not mean that we will not try and win it.
Rugby.rs: What is the long-term reach of the national team in rugby 7?
Marko Kapor: Rugby 7 is a discipline that can show a totally different image of the national team than rugby 15, which many teams show us. If we bring players from abroad along with our young players for a very short period of time, we can rise and play this competition in better quality groups.
Rugby.rs: Do we have the necessary quality to be a permanent member of the group above?
Marko Kapor: That is the plan, bearing in mind that as a country, we are also hosting the championship next year, our goal is to enter the group above. This year, we are preparing for that task. There is quality, but it cannot and should not be done overnight because everything can also collapse, but we should work systematically with the certainty that when we enter the group above, we do not fall out of it later, but make plans to enter another higher rank.
